58.3% of student midwives considered leaving their course in 2022

In 2022 NHS England Workforce, Training and Education (WTE) commenced a comprehensive programme of work to respond to the Kirkup (2015 and 2022) and Ockenden (2020 and 2022) reports into maternity services. The programme’s initial objectives were to strengthen the midwifery workforce by advancing high-quality learning environments, reducing learner attrition, and by improving the retention of newly qualified midwives.  

The programme has now extended to include all multi-professional learners, as the evidence gathered in parallel by the South West region has demonstrated that the Safe Learning Environment Charter is applicable to and will benefit learners in nursing, the allied health professions, pharmacy and healthcare sciences.   

The programme comprises three phases;

·       Development of a learner charter 

·       Charter co-design 

·       Implementation, monitoring and impact evaluation of the Charter 

The Safe Learning Environment Charter (SLEC) is the first milestone in a programme to strengthen the NHS workforce. It has been developed from the input of over 2482 learners, educators, and key-stakeholders in health education. Their consensus forms the content of this charter.