CareShield exits apprenticeships to protect learners from staff shortages 

A national health and social care training provider has closed due to staffing shortages that stalled apprentices’ progress.

CareShield Ltd had 405 apprentices on its books during its most recent visit from Ofsted in March 2025, but has now handed back its funding contract to the Department for Education.

The provider received back-to-back ‘requires improvement’ grades from the watchdog, with inspectors highlighting how apprentices were “frustrated” by changes in coaches and that “too few” learners complete their apprenticeship.

Leaders at the company told FE Week they notified the DfE of their decision to voluntarily withdraw from apprenticeship delivery in January this year. They worked with the department on an orderly wind-down until April 30.

The firm would not say how many staff have lost their jobs, but its most recent accounts show there were 54 employees in 2024.

In a joint statement, CareShield CEO Emma Perry and owner Christian Greenshaw said: “The decision to withdraw from apprenticeship delivery was not taken lightly. It followed a combination of sustained sector-wide challenges, including staffing shortages, high vacancy rates, and persistent operational pressures, which collectively disrupted learner progression.”

The pair added that functional skills rules requirements “further compounded these issues, making it increasingly difficult to deliver a consistent and high-quality experience for apprentices and employers”.

Ministers’ decision on February 11 to scrap the exit rule, which forces apprentices without a GCSE pass to achieve a functional skills qualification in the core subjects to complete their training, for those aged 19 or older, was not enough to convince CareShield’s leaders to continue training.

The most recent NHS long-term workforce plan, updated in 2023, showed 112,000 vacancies. It forecast a shortfall of between 260,000 and 360,000 staff by 2036-37. 

CareShield’s latest grade three Ofsted report said that apprentices “enjoy studying at CareShield” but have been “frustrated” by changes in coaches, which has disrupted their learning and impacted negatively on their progress.

And although staff set out clear expectations for apprentices’ attendance, “too few” apprentices attend their taught sessions, including functional skills.

“Too few apprentices remain on their apprenticeship programme, and too few complete their apprenticeship within the planned timescales,” Ofsted said.

CareShield’s retention and achievement rate sits at 50 per cent, according to the government’s most recent data.

CareShield, headquartered in Hertfordshire, was set up in 2009 and won its first direct contract to deliver apprenticeships in 2018. 

It taught apprentices across England, with most based in the Northeast, Yorkshire and Humber, East of England, London and the Southeast.

Perry and Greenshaw refused to say whether the company would now be put into administration.

The pair run another company called BroadShield Ltd, which delivers workforce development to organisations across all sectors.