Key Messages and links to 9 December 2021

Welcome to Health Education England’s regular stakeholder bulletin. In this bulletin we will provide:

• Chief Executive updates
• COVID-19 latest updates
• Overview of HEE education and training news

Chief Executive updates

We have an important job to do
This week HEE’s Chief Nurse, Mark Radford, takes over Navina’s blog. It has certainly been a busy time with last week’s announcement that HEE will merge with NHS England and NHS Improvement to create a stronger organisation that aligns workforce, financial and service planning with education and training, COVID-19 recovery, the People Plan, and a robust workforce reform programme for the benefit of patients and the public. A joint statement from Dr Navina Evans and Amanda Pritchard can be found here.

In the meantime, we have an important job to do, and our focus remains on ‘business as usual’, fulfilling HEE’s unique role in the system, particularly through our part in long-term workforce planning, and through medical and clinical education and training reform. Read more on the HEE website.

HEE COVID-19 latest updates

We have created a COVID-19 update webpage that provides guidance and information from HEE, which applies to all students and trainees. This webpage also includes HEE COVID-19 surge guidance.

To keep up to date with plans for medical training recovery, visit HEE COVID-19 webpages.

NHS encourages healthcare students to join expanded vaccination programme

Healthcare students across England are being asked to consider taking up bank roles to support the expansion of the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

A rapid expansion of vaccination teams nationwide to support delivery as all adults will now be offered a booster dose of the vaccine by the end of January with children aged 12 – 15 being offered a second dose, following the identification of the Omicron variant. Find out more about supporting the vaccine programme 

HEE’s TEL team scoop award for COVID-19 vaccination work

Health Education England’s e-learning for healthcare (elfh) team won the Digital Transformation award at last week’s GovNews Direct Smarter Working Live Awards for their work on the COVID-19 vaccination e-learning programme.

The team, in partnership with the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England) and NHS England and NHS Improvement developed the core digital theory training for all COVID-19 vaccinators in England.

Every vaccinator in England has completed the elfh COVID-19 vaccination e-learning programme meaning the resource has played a fundamental role in the success of the roll out of the vaccination programme.  To date there have been more than 2.7million session launches of the e-learning programme.

For more information about elfh visit www.e-lfh.org.uk.

Multi-Disciplinary Updates

Addressing health inequalities through alternative workforce models

Our duty to patients, taxpayers and our NHS people is to ensure education and training funds are used effectively and distributed fairly in relation to patient need. Across the NHS, this means we must have open and honest conversations, based on evidence about effectiveness, outcomes, and value for money, about how this money is currently spent and whether it can be spent better.

An example of this is the funding of postgraduate medical training posts, which have so far been distributed across England, based on historical arrangements. These posts are sometimes not well aligned with patient needs and this means they don’t provide the level of some of the services required by local populations. The distribution also does not reflect the availability of clinical opportunities for training. Read the full clinical stakeholder briefing on the HEE website.

Nursing

Record numbers accept a place to study nursing and midwifery

HEE is delighted to see that this year we have more than 30,000 individuals accepting places to study nursing.

Figures released today by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) show 30,185 nursing applicants secured places at English universities in 2021 – which is a 35 per cent increase since 2018. This followed an unprecedented 25.9 per cent increase from 23,630 in 2019 to 29,740 in 2020. That growth has been sustained and this year, the total rose by 1.5 per cent. The number of 18-year-old school leavers taking up places to study nursing went up by 10 per cent in the last year. Read more on the HEE website.

Popular Genomics webinars now available to watch on demand

A dedicated webinar series developed to support nurses, midwives and health visitors learn about genomics is now available to watch on demand.

Suitable for those with little or no existing knowledge of genomics, each webinar in the three-part series explores a different theme: what genomics is; how it is changing healthcare for the benefit of patients; and how health and social care staff can learn more about it.

The webinars, which ran in summer 2021, were produced and delivered through a partnership between NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Genomics Unit, HEE’s Genomics Education Programme and the RCNi.

Medical

New video resources for foundation trainees, schools and trusts

A new video has been launched targeting all foundation trainees, foundation schools and trusts, helping them to understand more about the Foundation Programme Charter. Mike Masding, Lead Foundation School Director, talks about good practice guidance and benchmarking, The Foundation Charter. This latest video is part of a series of video resources, including some do’s and don’ts for self-development time and advice on near peer support, both of which were recommendations from the Foundation Programme Review.

Pharmacy

E-portfolio orientation workshops

Don’t miss our last December online orientation workshops for trainee foundation pharmacists, designated supervisors, and educational leads. There is no sign-up process. Check the information on our website and click the link to join.

Trainee wellbeing

As part of our support for trainee foundation pharmacists, we have curated a range of resources on our website to support foundation learning and development throughout the year. Please encourage trainee foundation pharmacists to visit the Personal Wellbeing section of our personal development and progression resources webpage. The team welcomes feedback at traineepharmacist@hee.nhs.uk.

Discover pharmacy as a career

Aligned with the 2022 UCAS application cycle, our Health Careers workstream produced some great resources to promote pharmacy as a degree choice and as a career. These resources are also available on the NHS Health Careers Pharmacy webpage, which serves as a central repository for all HEE Pharmacy careers content. Please contact pharmacyteam@hee.nhs.uk with any feedback.

Mental health

Primary care severe mental illness (SMI) physical health checks learning catalogue now available

HEE has worked with NHS England and NHS Improvement to develop a catalogue of learning resources on the NHS Learning Hub for primary care professionals to deliver annual checks for people with severe mental illness (SMI). These resources include a free 15-minute e-learning module that explores good practice and the morbidity and mortality issues associated with SMI.

Improving access to physical health checks is highlighted in the NHS Long Term Plan. The aim is to carry out 390,000 checks for people with SMI by 2023/24. For 2021/22, the target is for 302,000 people with SMI to receive a physical health check.

Workforce and education initiatives

New workforce redesign tools to support ICSs

HEE has launched two new resources to support systems with their workforce redesign efforts: the Roles Explorer, a collection of resources for use when introducing new roles to inspire design of optimum skill mix, and the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) toolkit to support building and developing teams across professional groups and system structures.

HEE Quality Strategy and Framework Refresh

HEE has recently published updated versions of its Quality Strategy and Framework following a comprehensive review. As part of our statutory duties, HEE is responsible for securing continuous improvement in the quality of education and training provided for healthcare workers.

The 2021 HEE Quality Strategy draws on the learning and significant work already undertaken by education and placement providers to deliver excellent education and training and will support and promote safe, supportive and inclusive learning environments.

The 2021 HEE Quality Framework sets out the standards we expect placement providers to meet when delivering healthcare practice placements and training posts.  Both the strategy and the framework describe how we will monitor and assess quality, respond to quality concerns and capitalise on good practice, innovation and technology.

The review of the strategy and framework has drawn on the knowledge, experience and expertise of our partners and stakeholders through an extensive process of engagement and co-production. This included bringing together comments and feedback from around four hundred individuals representing a range of key partners. For more information visit the HEE website.

HEE and World Health Organisation – Global Workforce Planning Seminars

In partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO), we are hosting a series of seminars which will bring together health and care workforce planners from across the world. The seminars will focus on the importance of strengthening the health workforce internationally in support of the WHO Year of the Health and Care Workers (YHCW) programme.

The first of the seminars – An introduction to systemic workforce planning, will be held on Monday 13 December 2021, 09:30 – 10:30 GMT. Attendance is limited to 500 so to be assured of a place, register to join by visiting the HEE website. Three subsequent seminars will be held across 2022.

UK Global Better Health Programme: Case Study for Prosperity Programme

In partnership with colleagues from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Department for International Trade, HEE and other NHS arm’s length bodies have been working with health system leaders abroad to improve population level health outcomes, particularly those related to non-communicable diseases.
The overall aim of the Better Health Programme is to strengthen local health system structures and improve the quality of care, which in turn will contribute to healthier populations and sector-wide economic growth. UK Global Better Health Programme: Case Study for Prosperity Programme provides examples of how NHS organisations have engaged and collaborated with partner nations to reach shared national and global health goals. Read the full case study here.

New academy to boost knowledge specialists’ learning

HEE is delighted to announce the creation of the new Knowledge for Healthcare Learning Academy. The Academy offers a range of bespoke learning opportunities tailored to the needs of the specialist healthcare knowledge and library workforce in England.

Giving NHS library teams opportunities for enhanced professional development, the Academy will bring together elements of HEE’s current NHS Knowledge and Library Services workforce development offer under a single umbrella.  By improving their skills participants will not only be developing themselves but enhancing the already highly valued services provided by knowledge and library professionals to NHS.

The Centre for Advancing Practice Supported ePortfolio Route

The Centre for Advancing Practice Supported ePortfolio Route is designed to enable Practitioners to evidence that they meet the advance practitioner requirements described in the Multi-professional framework for advanced clinical practice in England (MPF).
The online application form for this route will be available via the Advanced Practice website from 13 December 2021 and will remain open until late January 2022.

To support, we have developed a guidance document, and we will also be holding a webinar – join us Monday 6 December at 10am. FAQs will also be added to the website shortly. For further details please visit the HEE website.

Centre for Advancing Practice Conference 2021

The Extraordinary People, Extraordinary Care conference took place last month and was the most successful to date. With over 2000 delegates and 90 speakers from a wide variety of professions. For those who were unable to attend, you can visit the Advanced Practice Conference 2021 page where you will find links to the conference main stage and keynote speeches alongside the workshops from both days of the conference. You can also visit our Youtube channel where you will find all the talks from both days.

eLearning for Healthcare

Keep up to date with all the latest additions to the elfh platform here.

FURTHER INFORMATION

By following @NHS_HealthEdEng you can keep up to date with new information and resources as they are published. Most importantly are the notifications of webinars being broadcast during the week.

Key Messages and links to 11 November 2021

Welcome to Health Education England’s regular stakeholder bulletin. In this bulletin we will provide:•

• Chief Executive updates
• COVID-19 latest updates
• Overview of HEE education and training news

Chief Executive updates

A long-term strategic framework for workforce planning by spring 2022

Earlier this year HEE was commissioned to convene work with leaders, influencers and advocates to co-design and shape a long-term strategic framework for workforce planning by spring 2022.
For the first time ever, this will span health and social care, and will also include regulated professionals working in social care, like social workers, nurses, and occupational therapists.
On 1 November, we were delighted to co-host our first Deliberative Event, to start the conversation with stakeholders. Over 200 senior leaders from across health and social care, as well as representatives from the third sector and those representing people who need and receive care, attended. Read more on the HEE website.

‘This is a crisis now and we need to act now’ Navina Evans pledges HEE’s commitment around a greener NHS in honour of COP26

COP26 is now taking place now in Glasgow until 12 November 2021, and any decisions made could lead to big changes to our everyday lives.
The Greener NHS programme is working with colleagues, hospitals, and our partners to build on the great work that’s been done so far on reducing the impact on public health, and the environment, while also saving money. Read more on the HEE website.

HEE COVID-19 latest updates

We have created a COVID-19 update webpage that provides guidance and information from HEE, which applies to all students and trainees. This webpage also includes HEE COVID-19 surge guidance.

To keep up to date with plans for medical training recovery, visit HEE COVID-19 webpages.

COVID Vaccination

Health Education England (HEE) is encouraging all health and care trainees, students and learners, to ensure they have had both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine unless they are medically exempt.

This follows the Government announcement that COVID-19 vaccination will be a condition of deployment for all frontline health and social care workers from 1 April 2022. The requirement will apply to all staff, trainees and volunteers who have direct face-to-face contact with people receiving care.

Professor Mark Radford, Chief Nurse, Health Education England is leading HEE’s drive to encourage trainee, learner and student vaccinations which will protect them, their families and the people they may be caring for and enable them to take part in their clinical learning placements.

Over the next few months, more information will be provided for trainees, students or learners who wish to opt not to have the vaccination without medical reasons and for those who are exempt and may require further information on how to continue with placements.

Book your coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccination

We are supporting all professions to rapidly grow to meet the needs of patients:

Multi-Disciplinary Updates

The National Education and Training Survey is now open

The National Education and Training Survey (NETS) is again live. The survey which runs twice a year is the only national survey open to all healthcare trainees and students to give important feedback on their clinical placements. Read more on the HEE website or fill out the survey here.

Launch of latest round of Digital Fellowship in Healthcare is open

Health professionals wanting to lead digital health transformations and innovations in their organisations can apply for the Topol Programme for Digital Fellowships in Healthcare, launched by HEE. For more information about the Topol Digital Fellowship and how to apply visit the HEE website.

Population Health Digital Toolkit launched today for learners

Health and care learners seeking insight and knowledge into population health can access a free resource, launched by Health Education England, to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities.
The Population Health Digital Toolkit provides links to free resources to help learners better understand population health principles, which can contribute to improved health outcomes across health and social care. These resources have been mapped to 11 core curriculum areas and will enable learners to acquire population health competencies in areas such as population health data, health inequalities, population health approaches and behaviour change. Some examples of practical applications of population health approaches are also included. Visit the HEE website to find out more and watch the video.

Population Health Fellowship

The selection process for organisations who would like to host a Population Health Fellow is now open for cohort 3 commencing in September 2022. Applications are open until 30 November 2021. More information and contacts are on the HEE website

Pharmacy

Pharmacy Integration Programme

The Pharmacy Integration Programme is investing a further £15.9 million in pharmacy professional career development. This will allow for the expansion of frontline pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in primary and community care, to meet the needs of patients and local communities. Find out more on our website.

Trainee pharmacist foundation year: e-portfolio registration closes 12 December

A record 85% of trainee foundation pharmacists are already set up on the new e-portfolio system. This tool is directly supporting practice-based assessment against the 2021/22 interim learning outcomes set by the General Pharmaceutical Council Standards.

Please ask your trainee foundation pharmacist to complete the HEE survey now to register before the deadline of 12 December 2021.

Access to the e-portfolio is also being rolled out to designated supervisors and education programme directors. Find out more on the Trainee Pharmacist Foundation Year website.

Mental health

New data shows growth in children and young people’s mental health services workforce across England

The mental health workforce supporting children and young people in England has seen a 39% increase in whole time equivalent (WTE) staff since 2018, according to new data¹ published by Health Education England on our website.

Award for HEE supported children and young people’s mental health crisis resources

The ‘We Can Talk: Fundamentals of Compassionate Care’ online learning resource, which was commissioned and supported by HEE’s national mental health team, has won a Nursing Times Award in the Emergency and Critical Care category.

Filmed during last year’s lockdown, the online resources were developed and curated with the voices and experiences of young people. By understanding the needs and experiences of young people using this resource, health and care professionals will have improved knowledge and confidence when supporting young people in a mental health crisis.

For more information visit the HEE news pages

Workforce and education initiatives

New Guide to Practice-Based Learning for Allied Health Professional (AHP) Students in Research

This guide shows the possibilities and benefits of offering practice-based learning in research for Allied Health Professional (AHP) students. The ideas and examples show how practice-based learning in research can enable students to achieve their learning outcomes and enhance their professional skills and employability.

Are you effectively mobilising your knowledge?

Enabling the health and care workforce to access and use high-quality evidence and knowledge is fundamental to the delivery of high-quality care.

Each November (#KNOWvember21) NHS knowledge and library specialists take the opportunity to showcase the many ways in which they mobilise evidence and knowledge. During the month the emphasis is on encouraging more people in the NHS to apply and use evidence, build know-how, continue to learn and drive innovation to transform services and improve the quality of healthcare services and healthcare outcomes.

It is also an opportunity for all those in health and care to share and learn from each other. NHS knowledge and library teams are in place to provide individuals, teams and organisations with evidence and knowledge to meet their needs as well as converting this into evidence and knowledge that is easily accessible and digestible to make a real difference to informing healthcare decisions.

Find out more about the broad range of services and resources available

https://library.nhs.uk/

BMJ Best Practice – patient leaflets now app-based

You can now download the BMJ Best Practice app for unlimited access to clinical answers anytime, anywhere. FREE to the NHS in England courtesy of Health Education England: www.bmj.com/hee 

BMJ Best Practice has more than 500 patient leaflets that cover over 300 conditions. There is a vast range of information produced to directly support staff to explain a condition or treatment to their patients, covering areas such as cancer screening, hip and knee replacement surgery, HIV, COVID-19 vaccines, contraception methods, anaphylaxis and WHO recommended childhood vaccines.

Benefits of Volunteering Report Released

Health Education England, in partnership with the University of Portsmouth has launched the ‘NHS Employee Volunteers: Implications for Learning, Work and Careers’ qualitative project report.
To compile the report we spoke with volunteers about their experiences of volunteering within the NHS as well as in the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector.
The report concludes that the benefits of employer supported volunteering programmes are wide-ranging to the individual, the employer and organisation the volunteer supports. To read the full report click here.

ICS Feedback questionnaire

Following the launch of the second iteration of the Integrated Care System (ICS) statements we are contacting all ICS stakeholders to seek views about the statements, both their content and presentation.
Your feedback will help us to improve the product and consider other qualitative and quantitative measures that we will look to introduce over time.
HEE will now regularly be publishing a Statement for each ICS/STP in England as part of our commitment to being transparent about the investment which we make in the current and future workforce of the NHS. It covers funding for future workforce and for workforce development, which is about 90% of HEE’s total investment.

The questionnaire can be found here or by scanning the following QR code and will be open until 29 November 2021.

elearning for healthcare

Keep up to date with all the latest additions to the elfh platform here.

HEE Operating Model

Our new Operating Model and Integrated Care System Relationship Guidance are available to view on the HEE website. Our Operating Model has been developed in light of the changes set out in the Health and Care Bill, in particular Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) becoming statutory organisations.

It will help ensure effective collaborative working with ICSs through the relationship between our national and regional teams.

FURTHER INFORMATION

By following @NHS_HealthEdEng you can keep up to date with new information and resources as they are published. Most importantly are the notifications of webinars being broadcast during the week.

Right now, making sure we are communicating properly is obviously incredibly important. If there’s any information you think is missing on HEE’s webpages, please let us know by submitting your question to the HEE Q&A helpdesk.