Community nurse specialist practitioner (NMC 2022)

Level 6/7 apprenticeship (non-degree qualification) · Health and science route · Standard ST1419 v2.0

Level
7
Typical duration
24 months (about 2 years)
Max funding band
£14,000
Route
Health and science
Regulated by
Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)

Caring for patients with a wide range of health conditions.

About the role

Community nurse specialist practitioners provide health care at an advanced level of practice to people of all ages and communities. They work across different organisations and settings; for example, primary care, social care, third-sector organisations, hospitals (including mental health), hospices, prisons, schools and other community services.

The occupation’s broad purpose is working with people in a domestic setting (which could be an individual’s house), care homes, a hostel/hotels, prison services etc, a healthcare setting or even the streets, in the case of the homeless population. Community nurse specialist practitioners work independently and autonomously in situations that may be complex and challenging within the context specific environment they are working and are accountable for a large caseload of people with a wide range of complex and/or long-term health conditions, for whom they prioritise care, assess risk and may prescribe medication, dressings and appliances, in accordance with legislation. They will manage the response to changing local demands, which require very careful oversight and case-management. They will typically lead a team, who often work in isolation, without immediate and direct access to medical advice. They influence and lead change-management initiatives within the service; for example, new ways of working and new models of care.

They will role model leadership values and behaviours within teams and work with senior leaders of organisations to implement policy, working within legislative boundaries in their workplace. They demonstrate an in depth understanding of operational and financial issues within their organisation and acknowledge how this may impact on advanced clinical assessment of individuals. They will follow the individual’s journey in dealing with co-morbidities, co-occurring conditions and medicines management promoting a person-centred approach using advanced clinical decision-making skills based on a holistic bio-psychosocial perspective which may include an advanced psychological, emotional or financial assessment.

They are highly skilled in complex risk assessments, risk formulations and risk management and will be comfortable advocating for people in their care and the services they work in and with. They are innovators, creative and culturally sensitive and are inclusive in their practice, promoting public health to improve the quality of outcomes for the individual they are caring for.  

In their daily work, a community nurse specialist practitioner interacts with individuals, their carers and relatives, and a wide variety of professionals, including GPs, allied health professionals, social workers, police, housing workers, and voluntary workers.

How it compares

At 24 months (about 2 years), it is shorter than average for a degree-level apprenticeship (the average across all 172 Level 6+ standards is 39 months).

The funding band — the maximum an employer's levy can contribute to training costs — is £14,000, below the £21,500 average for degree-level standards. Apprentices never pay tuition either way.

Typical job titles

Entry requirements

It is a requirement of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) that those training to become a community nurse specialist practitioner are already registered nurses on Part 1 of the NMC register.

Entry requirements are ultimately set by each employer — treat these as the baseline, not the bar.

What you come out with

What you'll learn

The official standard defines 10 core duties, 91 knowledge areas, 101 skills, 6 behaviours. This is the actual assessed content of the apprenticeship — worth reading before an interview, because competency questions are usually written straight from these lists.

Core duties 10
Knowledge 91
Skills 101
Behaviours 6

Live vacancies

No live vacancies for this course as of 2026-07-24 — new adverts appear on Find an apprenticeship daily, and many degree apprenticeship employers recruit on their own careers sites instead.

Universities registered to deliver it

15 universities are on the government provider register for this standard. Registration means they can deliver it — live vacancies depend on employer partnerships each recruitment cycle.

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Official sources

Occupational summary, duties, knowledge, skills and behaviours reproduced from the ST1419 apprenticeship standard (last updated 2026-03-25) — contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Always check the official page before applying: standards get revised.