Lucy Adams, the BBC's director of people, has called for less bureaucracy for organisations looking to develop apprenticeships and similar schemes.

Addressing the closing session of the CIPD Conference yesterday afternoon, Adams appealed for the processes around such training and recruitment options to be simplified.

"My biggest bugbear is whenever you have this idea that you might want to do something, whether its apprentices, work experience, whether you provide a work placement, the amount of bureaucracy it takes to get either some support or to find out where you go to, she said.

"It’s not because we lack the motivation to do it. [We should] strip away all of that, really streamline and make it easy for employers, because I think that whilst we will clearly see a potential decline in corporate social responsibly activities by employers, actually most employers have a heart. They operate in communities, they have children, they have relatives, so its about facilitating that. It’s about making it easier.

The CIPD’s Chief Economist, John Philpott, said that engaging with the local community was justifiable on financial, as well as charitable, grounds, saying: "There is an economic benefit potentially to employers, its not just about corporate social responsibility."

Adams and Philpot were two of four panelists—along with Unite’s assistant general secretary, Gail Cartmail and the Minister for Employment, Chris Grayling—taking part in a panel discussion chaired by Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy.