Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust Transforms Clinical Placement Management with InPlace Network

75% reduction in admin workload – and a foundation for scalable workforce growth. BHRUT replaced manual, fragmented undergraduate education processes with a centralised digital platform, improving data accuracy and governance of 800 nursing student placements in collaboration with university partners.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) transformed its approach to managing over 800 annual nursing placements by replacing its manual, fragmented processes with a centralised digital platform. The project marked a key strategic milestone for BHRUT on its path to digital transformation.

With InPlace Network, the Trust reduced administrative workload by up to 75%, improved data accuracy and governance, and strengthened collaboration with university partners—laying the foundation for scalable workforce growth and expanded placement capacity.

About BHRUT

BHRUT is a large, acute NHS Trust employing approximately 9,000 staff and serving a population of approximately 750,000 across three diverse boroughs in North East London.

With an annual income of £931.6 million, the Trust operates from two main hospital sites in Goodmayes and Romford, as well as several community hubs and health centres.

Last year, BHRUT saw nearly 349,000 attendances at its busy Emergency Departments, facilitated more than 868,000 Outpatient appointments, performed nearly 314,000 diagnostic tests, and welcomed more than 7,185 babies into the world.

9,000

staff across two main hospital sites

750K

the population served across three NE London boroughs

£931.6M

BHRUT’s annual income

868K+

outpatient appointments facilitated last year

The Challenge

For BHRUT, managing clinical placements at scale had become increasingly unsustainable. With around 800 nursing students and nursing associate students placed for up to 12 weeks at a time across more than 60 different critical areas each year, the Trust relied on spreadsheets, emails, and manual coordination to manage these students — creating a significant administrative burden and time inefficiencies.

“Our previous system was very heavily admin overloaded, in terms of liaising with all our universities, placement mapping for every student, and keeping all our wards and placement areas informed. It was becoming very difficult to achieve what we wanted to achieve within a given timeframe, and we knew we needed a digital solution,”

Kulwinder Kaur,
BHRUT Pre-registration Lead

The previous approach led to:

Time-consuming coordination across teams and Higher Education Institutes (HEIs)
Data inaccuracies and version control issues
Data governance near misses due to the use of spreadsheets and emails to transmit information
Limited visibility into placement capacity and utilisation
Reluctance to innovate and explore alternative placement learning models

At the same time, staff were spending more time managing placement logistics and responding to data validation requests than supporting quality improvement of placements — creating frustration and limiting the Trust’s ability to scale placements and explore different placement models.

BHRUT needed a solution that could reduce inefficiencies, improve education governance, and support the long-term development of undergraduate and early-career pathways.

The Solution

BHRUT implemented InPlace Network as part of a broader digital transformation, not just a system replacement.

The aim was to improve efficiency, better use resources, and ensure robust quality and governance throughout the management of student nursing placements, while supporting the future development of an early career pathway for newly registered nurses and nursing associates.

“We followed a very structured procurement process, and InPlace Network stood out in terms of its functionality, seamlessness, time management, and the fluidity of internal and external communication. We could see the change it could deliver, and we haven’t been disappointed.”

Tokunbo Awosusi, Project Manager for BHRUT

Knowing stakeholder engagement was crucial to the Trust’s digital transformation goals, the project team engaged higher education partners and internal teams, including practice education leads, IT and procurement. This included joint project planning and implementation meetings, webinars, platform demonstration and training sessions and After Action Review (AAR) sessions. External stakeholders such as university partners were part of the project team.

“Clinical placements and undergraduate education are done in partnership, so strengthening collaborative partnerships with local universities was a key part of our success.”

Kenye Karemo,

Director of Education, Workforce Development and Research at BHRUT

Internally, the benefits of implementation far outweighed the potential resistance to change. BHRUT placed significant emphasis on system adoption, recognising that technology alone would not drive transformation.

Training and team learning sessions were delivered in multiple formats and repeated over time, allowing users to build confidence and capability:

Dedicated sessions for internal education teams including practice educators and practice coordinators
Joint training with HEI partners
Hands-on system demonstrations
Continuous support and After Action Reviews (AARs) with the project teams

A cascading “see one, do one, teach one” approach empowered internal teams to become champions of the system. By implementing InPlace Network, BHRUT has centralised its student clinical placements and built the foundation for future workforce growth.

“InPlace is essentially a centralised one-stop shop which has dramatically reduced admin time and which allows us to allocate and publish placement requests in real-time.”

Mary O’Connell, Undergraduate Education Manager, BHRUT

Strategic Impact & Future Vision

For BHRUT, the implementation of InPlace Network represents far more than operational improvement; it marks the beginning of a broader, long-term transformation of undergraduate education.

From the outset, BHRUT leadership was clear that this initiative was not simply about digitising an existing process, but about fundamentally rethinking how placements are managed, scaled, and leveraged as a strategic asset.

“I am proud to have been part of this project, which has brought huge benefits for the Trust. It has allowed our Undergraduate Education Team to focus on priority tasks, like supporting our student nurses to see us as an employer of choice so they will want to return as permanent staff,”

Tokunbo Awosusi, Project Manager for BHRUT

With a centralised system now in place, BHRUT has moved beyond reactive administration toward a more strategic, data-driven model. The Trust is beginning to view placements not just as a logistical requirement, but as a critical component of its future workforce pipeline and placement innovation.

This shift enables new capabilities, including:

Greater visibility into placement capacity across the organisation
The ability to align student placements with workforce needs
A more structured approach to monitoring the quality of education and student experience

“Placements are resources, and students are our future workforce. It’s about getting a handle on both elements and being able to create the art of the possible with improved visibility and reporting.”

Kenye Karemo, Director of Education, Workforce Development and Research at BHRUT

Expanding Placement Capacity and Reach

A key next step for BHRUT is expanding placement capacity, both within hospital settings and beyond.

Historically, placement opportunities were limited to established clinical areas. With improved visibility and coordination, the Trust is now exploring how to:

Identify untapped capacity across departments
Train additional staff to support student placements
Extend placements into community and non-traditional settings

This expansion is critical to supporting the NHS’s broader workforce development goals and addressing growing demand for clinical training placements.

“Part of the transformation is about expanding placement capacity… thinking about where else we could place students and how we could train additional staff.”

Tokunbo Awosusi, Project Manager for BHRUT

A Foundation for Long-Term Transformation

Ultimately, InPlace Network has provided BHRUT with the infrastructure, visibility, and confidence to evolve how it delivers clinical education at scale.

What began as a solution to administrative inefficiencies has become a catalyst for:

Stronger partnerships with HEIs
Improved staff and student experience
Greater organisational agility
A more sustainable approach to workforce development

As the Trust continues its transformation journey, InPlace Network will remain a central platform enabling BHRUT to expand capacity, improve quality, and play a leading role in shaping the future healthcare workforce.

Benefits

Operational Productivity

A centralised one-stop shop has dramatically reduced admin time and enables real-time allocation and publication of placement requests — freeing the Undergraduate Education Team to focus on student support rather than logistics.

Stronger Partnerships with HEIS

Joint training, shared platforms and transparent data have deepened collaboration with university partners — with HEI partners reporting that having all placements “in one place now” has made everyday work measurably easier.

Scalable Workforce Growth
Improved visibility means BHRUT can identify untapped capacity, train additional staff to support students, and extend placements into community and non-traditional settings — supporting the NHS’s broader plans for workforce education and development.

Governance & Data Quality
The shift away from spreadsheets shared externally has eliminated version-control issues and reduced data governance risk — while giving leadership the reporting foundation needed to monitor education quality and student experience.

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“Although the implementation of InPlace took us into uncharted territory, Quantum provided a very strong support network to ensure we could move forward with confidence.”

Carmel Dyer, Placement Administrator

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