Trust dropped university after it failed nursing standards

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust reported in a board paper: “Unfortunately and exceptionally the University of Bedfordshire was unable to achieve Nursing and Midwifery Council revalidation for any of their nursing programmes.”

The trust had chosen the University of Bedfordshire to deliver training for its nurses and nursing associates as part of a procurement process, which was signed off by its chief executive.

CPFT said in its board paper late last year the impact of the university’s revalidation failure had “affected all future nursing cohorts”.

“The reprocurement for future nursing apprenticeship programmes is underway, the contract with UoB will not be extended due to the revalidation issues,” the trust said in the November paper.

It said the problem — which appears to have emerged in the summer — had been mitigated after negotiations with Anglia Ruskin University, which would accept students transferring from UoB to start their nursing apprenticeship training.

A CPFT spokesman said: “The University of Bedfordshire provided academic nursing and nursing associate training for staff already employed by CPFT. Since September 2019 that academic training has been provided by Anglia Ruskin University.”

The University of Bedfordshire told HSJ it had acted on feedback given by Mott Macdonald — the consultancy firm appointed by the NMC to inspect training provision — and said a “robust plan” had been developed to achieve approval of its nursing course.

“A recent review of our provision by both Health Education England and Ofsted has given assurance that the education we provide is of a high standard with no concerns expressed about quality of current or previous nursing education,” a university spokeswoman said.

She added it was “not unusual” for the NMC to impose conditions on education providers.