We have for many years invested in a successful apprenticeship programme, and is committed to recruiting and developing apprentices as a means of providing high quality training opportunities both for new starters and for our existing workforce.

As part of our statutory requirements we must report on our progress in meeting the public sector apprenticeship target. The target is for new apprenticeship starts, which includes both newly employed apprentices and any existing employees that have begun an apprenticeship. Each local authority’s target is based on the headcount of their organisation (not FTE), and will include community and voluntary controlled schools, Fire and Rescue Services and other services where the local or combined authority is the employer.  The legislation that introduced the target is clear that public bodies in scope should ‘have regard to’ it, however there are currently no sanctions in place for any public body that fails to meet its target.