Ensuring the Quality of Medical Education and Training

4 questions were raised relating to this theme, the collated answer is below:

The Distribution programme is working alongside teams nationally and regionally to ensure educational capacity expands alongside increases to training places and quality of medical education and training is upheld and improved. Health Education England has published a new strategy to ensure that the NHS has a sustainable supply of educators to support the development of the healthcare workforce.

The Educator Workforce Strategy sets out seven priorities that will lead to sufficient capacity and quality of educators to allow the growth in healthcare workforce that is needed to deliver care, now and in the future. The strategy aims to tackle concerns in the healthcare education sector and from service providers about the capacity of educators to meet the current and future demands for education and training.

The recommendations made in the strategy will be used by the Workforce, Training and Education directorate in the new NHS England to develop, with stakeholders, an implementation plan which will sit alongside the Long Term Workforce Plan for the NHS.

The seven priorities included in the report are:

• The educator workforce must be a key consideration in integrated workforce and service planning.
• Establishing and protecting educator time and resources to support the implementation of Integrated Care Board workforce plans.
• Introducing career frameworks for educators of all professions.
• Supporting the development and wellbeing of educators.
• Supporting improvement through defined standards and principles.
• Promoting the NHS aspirations to improve equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Embedding evolving and innovative models of education.

Further details on the work being undertaken in the distribution programme to ensure educational capacity is matched to training placement expansion will be shared in due course.