Extremism concern at Walsall NHS Trust's apprenticeship scheme

Concerned education watchdog Ofsted also said that some members of the scheme, which has around 110 apprentices, only had a 'superficial' understanding of British values, including democracy and the country's law.

These findings come just a year on from Walsall being branded a 'breeding ground for fanatics' after at least a dozen residents were known to have attempted to flee the borough to join up with ISIS in Syria and seven were convicted of terrorism related crimes.

The apprentices on the scheme regularly spend time on the wards of the Manor Hospital and in its various departments.

Education watchdog Ofsted was critical of the trust's apprenticeship scheme as a whole as it rated it requires improvement, but it also raised specific concerns over the attitude of a minority on the scheme towards the issue of extremism.

A report prepared by inspectors after they visited the trust's Moat Road headquarters last month said: "A minority of assessors and apprentices have only a superficial understanding of British values and the risks of extremism and radicalisation."

Ofsted defines British values as being made up of an understanding of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect for and having a tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.

West Midlands MEP Bill Etheridge said Ofsted's findings were an example of people not assimilating into the UK's society, which needed to be dealt with in a 'very strong way'.

He said: "It is very concerning that we are not assimilating people into our society and we need to deal with this issue in a very strong way.

"We must not be stopped from dealing with issues of Islamic extremism by political correctness."

The apprentices on Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust's scheme study for health and social care apprentices and business administration apprentices.

Overall, the scheme was rated requires improvement for its leadership, quality of teaching, personal development and outcomes.

Inspectors said in their report: "Self-assessment and quality improvement planning are not robust enough to help managers to secure and sustain high-quality provision. A few assessors do not give feedback in enough detail for apprentices to know what they have to do to improve their knowledge and skills. Assessors do not challenge apprentices to excel.

"Trainers and assessors do not help apprentices to extend their English and mathematical skills sufficiently in training, assessments and reviews. Managers do not analyse or use available data sufficiently well to monitor the progress of apprentices or the performance of different groups of learners to enable them to drive forward improvements in the quality of provision.

"The board has not yet set clear performance indicators for the apprenticeship programme to hold managers better to account."

However the scheme was praised for having 'well-qualified and dedicated' staff, having 'good links' with other NHS trusts and providing access to 'valuable learning opportunities' on wards and in hospital departments.

Mark Sinclair, the trust's executive director of human resources and organisational development, said: "Apprentices are an important asset to our workforce and have the opportunity to take on a range of roles both in our hospital and community services - supporting our Vision of Becoming your partners for first class integrated care.

“We are still developing our apprenticeship scheme which was previously administered through a local college. We brought it in house last year. While the “Requires Improvement” rating could be seen as disappointing it does reflect the fact that progress still needs to be made and we readily acknowledge this.

“We will continue to build on the high quality training and support that is being offered while focusing on areas that could be strengthened.”

The Ofsted report comes around 15 months after the trust was rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission after grave concerns were raised around it's A&E and maternity departments.