Merton Council’s Information Governance team supports services across the borough to manage data lawfully, safely and transparently for residents. It handles Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, data protection issues, subject access requests and wider governance of information across the organisation.
The team is led by experienced specialists, including Director of Governance and Civic Services, Sharon Evans, and manager, Jermaine Harris, who oversees day‑to‑day work and acted as supervisor to data protection and information governance apprentice, Fatima Yusuf.
Why Merton Council invested in an apprentice
When Sharon joined Merton, she brought a strong belief in apprenticeships from previous roles in other councils where “grow your own” talent strategies were well established. Sharon sees apprenticeships as a way to bring new energy into specialist, often overlooked areas like information governance.
The field has traditionally been seen as “a lawyer’s role” done by “very old heads on shoulders,” she explained, with people pushed into it by accident rather than choice. She endorsed the creation of a deliberate route into this profession for young people and to demonstrate that information governance can be a modern, attractive career path as well as contributing to a joined-up apprenticeship approach at Merton which would benefit the council as a whole.
There was also a clear workforce need. Information governance is a complex, compliance‑critical area where councils struggle to recruit experienced staff. By bringing in an apprentice, Merton aimed to:
- Build a pipeline of skilled information governance professionals with up‑to‑date knowledge
- Retain talent and ‘grow our own’ specialists
- Refresh the team with new perspectives and digital skills.
Sharon summed up the motivation simply: “I think apprenticeships are brilliant; they are something that we need to really hold on to and we really need to promote.”
Recruiting and onboarding Fatima
When Fatima joined as an information governance apprentice, she entered a team that was already close‑knit and supportive. Jermaine joined partway through her apprenticeship and could immediately see the impact she was having: “A lot of what she’d learned had already been put into practice… you could clearly see that in what she’s doing on a day‑to‑day basis.”
For Sharon, seeing someone as young as Fatima in information governance was hugely refreshing: “We don’t get to see that very often in local government. We certainly don’t get to see that in the field of information governance either, which many avoid as it’s deemed too challenging or hard.”
Supporting study time and workload
Like many employers, Merton had to find a workable balance between business needs and off‑the‑job training time. Jermaine shared that “sometimes it could be a challenge, especially when it’s busy,” but emphasised that supporting Fatima’s learning was non‑negotiable: “For us, it’s key that from Fatima’s point of view she was able to continue with her study time and be in a position where she can continue to make progress with the work for her apprenticeship.”
Together, they developed a flexible, communication‑led approach. Fatima would usually spread her study time with allocated slots each day in your calendar, but around key projects would block out bigger chunks of time as needed.
From the management side, this meant it was essential for Jermaine and the team to:
- Plan workloads with study time built in
- Accept that at busy periods, it would be “a fine balance”
- Remember that the long‑term aim was a fully‑qualified, confident information governance professional.
Impact on the team and organisation
Both Sharon and Jermaine are clear that Fatima has made a significant impact; Jermaine described her as “more than capable” and said that his role is mainly to provide “the odd little bit of fine tuning here and there, and to be a guide.”
He trusts her to handle complex tasks: “You could actually ask [her] to oversee a certain project or look at certain tasks, and she will be able to do that on her own initiative. She showed strong character in a lot of what she did.”
A concrete example is the right to erasure process that Fatima helped design. Tasked with putting a procedure together, reviewing the law and her coursework to build something robust, the refreshed procedure that Fatima produced is now embedded in the council’s operations: “Whenever there’s a request that comes in, we look back to that.”
For Sharon, Fatima’s up‑to‑date training has genuine strategic value: “You have the most up‑to‑date, modern training that so many of us didn’t have. It’s worth so much.” This helps the council stay compliant with ever‑evolving data protection requirements and brings fresh thinking into long‑established practices.
Culture, diversity and “growing our own”
One of the biggest benefits has been cultural. Sharon notes that information governance teams in local government are often older and quite settled in their ways: “To have somebody young like Fatima joining such an established team, it could have been quite difficult on both sides of the experience.” Instead, it has been positive for everyone: “They look out for each other; they’ve taken her on board and they’re not letting her go.”
For Sharon, the apprenticeship has proved that Merton can “grow our own” high‑calibre information governance professionals: “Because Fatima has done this route and completely excelled, we want to try and keep that momentum and grow our own. And we don’t want to lose her!”
Apprenticeships at Merton: Raising the profile
This success story has helped raise the profile of apprenticeships across Merton and contribute to a joined-up approach in the council by celebrating achievements and really recognising the range of impact apprentices can have. Sharon has talked about Fatima at Corporate Leadership team meetings with the Chief Executive and highlighted her journey at staff conferences and away days.
She explained that “people just didn’t know that these really positive, really good apprenticeships and journeys were going on.” Sharing this story internally is beginning to shift perceptions and encourage even more services to consider apprenticeships as part of their workforce strategy.
Looking ahead, Sharon and Jermaine want to see apprenticeships become a visible, consistent element of Merton’s talent pipeline, particularly in specialist areas where recruitment is difficult and where fresh perspectives are especially valuable.
Key takeaways for employers
- Apprenticeships can transform specialist, hard‑to‑recruit roles: Information governance is complex and often seen as niche, but a well‑supported apprentice can quickly become a highly capable team member who brings fresh, up‑to‑date knowledge and improves core processes
- Strong internal support is essential but achievable: Balancing study time and workload can be challenging but clear communication, planning and a shared commitment to the apprentice’s development make it workable and worthwhile
- “Grow your own” builds loyalty and capability: By investing in Fatima’s development, Merton has not only gained an effective information governance practitioner but also someone the team is determined to retain, turning a fixed‑term apprenticeship into long‑term talent
- Apprentices can refresh team culture and diversity: Bringing a young apprentice into an experienced team has helped challenge assumptions about who can succeed in fields like informative governance.