NETS 2024

What is the National and Education Training Survey?

The National Education and Training Survey (NETS) is the voice of the current and future healthcare workforce.  It is the only national survey open to all students, trainees and doctors and dentists undertaking a practice placement or training post in healthcare services across England.  

The NETS is available to complete here until 11:59pm on Tuesday 26 November 2024. 

Why should I complete the NETS?

The NETS is your survey. We want to hear from you. Your diverse skills, experience and knowledge will help us to shape the future of education and training according to those who understand it best.  

The survey takes just 10 minutes to complete, and your feedback is vital in ensuring that all learning environments are safe, inclusive and support you to develop in your profession and career.  All learning environments should enable healthcare professionals to work together to deliver the highest standards of care to the communities we serve.

What will I be asked?

The NETS is quick and simple to complete online, and features: 

A core questionnaire covering Induction, Clinical Supervision, Facilities, Learning Opportunities and Teamwork to understand your experience of education and training in the clinical learning environment. 

Health and wellbeing and equality, diversity and inclusion questions to ensure you are training and learning in a safe and inclusive environment.   

A small series of questions specific to your profession. 

The ability to provide feedback on what you think is working well and what could be improved. 

The option to recommend your placement area. 

How will my response be used?

Your privacy is protected. We want your honest views on the quality of education and training you’ve experienced so far; it’s why all individual responses to the survey are confidential. 

Your information will only ever be disclosed to your education or placement provider if a serious safety concern is identified.  This information will be disclosed in the strictest confidence with the sole purpose of ensuring that you, those working around you and patients are kept safe. 

Am I eligible to complete the survey?

All undergraduate and postgraduate students, trainees and doctors and dentists in training undertaking a training post or practice placement as part of their education and training programme are eligible to complete the survey.  

This includes the following professional groups: 

Advanced Clinical Practice (ACP): All ACP learners.

Allied Health Profession (AHP): All pre-and-post registration AHP learners.

Apprenticeships: All apprenticeship learners undertaking a placement or post in healthcare.

Dental Postgraduate: Dental Public Health, all postgraduate dental training programmes.

Healthcare assistant, health visiting staff and other support staff: Learners studying towards a health and social care qualification.

Healthcare Science: Learners on Healthcare Science programmes, including the Scientist Training Programme (STP), Higher Specialist Scientist Training Programme (HSST), Echocardiography Training Programme (ETP), and Practitioner Training Programme (PTP).

Medical and Dental Undergraduate: Learners at medical or dental schools studying towards an undergraduate medical or dental degree.

Medicine Postgraduate: Medicine Public Health, all postgraduate medical training programmes.

Midwifery: All midwifery learners, including those returning to practice.

Nursing: All nursing learners, including trainee nursing associates.

Pharmacy: All GP trainee pharmacists, trainee pharmacists, pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians and undergraduate pharmacy learners.

Physician Associates: All learners undertaking physician associate training.

Psychological Professions: All learners undertaking a placement or training post in a psychological profession. 

Scientific, therapeutic and technical: Learners undertaking a professionally qualified clinical or scientific education and training programme.

Who runs the NETS?

The NETS is commissioned by NHS England.

Where do you get my contact details and, how are they stored?

NHS England’s Trainee Information System (TIS) is a national information system underpinning the management and administration of postgraduate medical and dental training.  This system contains contact details for doctors and dentists in training.  This information is stored securely and only used to support the management and administration of postgraduate medical and dental training.   

NHS England are working in partnership with the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) to share the survey with pre-registration students studying on healthcare, medical and dental courses in receipt of an NHS Bursary or the Learning Support Fund.  Student contact details are not shared with NHS England.   

The NETS contains an option for learners to share a contact email address and provide consent for NHS England to contact them for the purpose of education, training and quality management.  This may include NHS England contacting students with invitations to join focus groups and webinars.  This is entirely optional with any collected email addresses stored in NHS England’s Data Warehouse in line with organisational information governance and records management policies.

I completed the survey last year. Why am I being asked to complete it again?

The NETS runs once a year.   We are aware that students, trainees and doctors and dentists in training are asked to complete several different surveys each year and that this can be frustrating.     

We are asking and encouraging you to complete the NETS each year to tell us about your experience and help us to ensure that all learning environments, across all healthcare services, are safe, supportive and inclusive.

I have tried to complete the survey online, but I am experiencing an issue. How do I resolve this?

We are very sorry that you are experiencing an issue when trying to complete the survey.  Please contact us at england.nets@nhs.net and we will ensure that you are able to access and complete the survey.

Can I change or withdraw my survey response?

Yes. Please contact us at england.nets@nhs.net and we will action this for you.

How can I be sure that my concerns expressed in the survey are acted upon?

The response to the survey is carefully analysed by NHS England’s Regional Education Quality teams and your education and placement provider to ensure all concerns are identified, reviewed and, where appropriate, acted upon.  Your feedback is important and forms part of NHS England’s approach to the monitoring of clinical placements and will be used to develop remedial action plans and/or share good practice in partnership with education and placement providers.   

For an immediate response, please raise any concerns directly with your supervisor, placement provider and/or education provider.

How can I access the results?

An aggregated version of the NETS results will be available on the NHS England website in  2025.

I have not received an email invitation to complete the survey. How can I access the email invitation?

Resident doctors or dentists in training will receive a direct email invitation to complete the survey using contact information stored on NHS England’s Trainee Information System (TIS). 

This email invitation contains a personalised link to the survey pre-populated with your training programme and placement information.  

If you have not received an email invitation, please check your ‘Spam’ folder.

If you have not received an email invitation by 1 October, please contact england.nets@nhs.net and we will provide a personalised link to the survey.  

The prepopulated information in the survey is incorrect or incomplete. How can I update this information?

The pre-populated information (training institution, training programme, level of study, placement location and placement provider) has been collated from the national Trainee Information System (TIS).  This data was accessed in September to ensure it is as accurate and complete as possible.    

If any of the pre-populated information is incorrect or incomplete, please note that you will be able to amend this information directly on the survey platform.    

If you experience any issues when amending this information, please contact us at england.nets@nhs.net.

I am already on practice placement; do I complete the NETS and my university placement evaluation?

Yes.  Placement evaluations are essential for your education and placement provider to gain feedback regarding the delivery of programmes in clinical practice settings, these should be completed as required by your education provider.    

What options should I select for the training institution and level of study questions when completing the survey?

When asked ‘What is the name of your training institution (i.e., college or university)?’, please select ‘NHSE Pharmacy School.’     

In response to the question ‘What is your level of study?’, please select ‘Further Education’.

What is the National and Education Training Survey?

The National Education and Training Survey (NETS) is the voice of the current and future healthcare workforce.  It is the only national survey open to all students, trainees and doctors and dentists undertaking a practice placement or training post in healthcare services across England.  

Why is the NETS conducted?

The NETS is a unique multi-professional window into the environments and services in which the current and future healthcare workforce are training and working and can identify emerging and escalating concerns.

In the most recent NETS in November 2023, we heard:

A total of 38,066 learners took part in the survey – the second highest number of responses since 2022.

From 2021 – 2023, there has been a positive upward trend in the quality of learning experience on practice placement/training post. For example, 85.3% of learners reported positively in their overall educational experience compared to 84.19% in 2021.

The number of learners considering leaving their course in 2023 (32.29%) improved slightly from 2022 (33.48%).

Stress of the situation, workload, and being overwhelmed by the situation are the top 3 reasons why learners considered leaving their course in 2023.

Over half of all learners (57.33%) state the balance between the workload and their learning is about right which is a notable improvement from 2021 (53.65%) and 2022 (53.26%0.

More learners know how to access support from their local Freedom to Speak Up Guardian than in previous years.

How will the results be used?

The survey results are triangulated with qualitative and quantitative sources of information and soft intelligence to form a comprehensive picture of the practice learning environment.  The results are used to identify areas of concern and good practice in addition to emerging patterns or trends in specific professional groups and geographical areas.  

‘If we find a better way of doing something, we share it.

We use our voices to shape our roles, workplace, the NHS,

and our communities, to improve the health and care of

the nation’ NHS People Promise 2020/21 

The NETS is a key part of our work at NHS England to eliminate inequalities in education and training.  The response data is analysed to identify any correlation between placement dissatisfaction and/or discrimination with one or more protected characteristics.

What are the benefits of NETS?

The NETS is the voice of the current and future healthcare workforce. By understanding their experience, we can work together to ensure that all individuals are supported to learn and train in safe and inclusive learning environments. 

The bespoke NETS Reporting Tool provides an interactive platform to analyse the survey results and generate reports at professional, national, regional and individual placement level. The tool enables education and placement providers to analyse and, where required, act upon the response from learners learning and training in their organisation.

A second version of the NETS Reporting Tool is available to colleagues working in a university, college or higher education institution.  This version includes a filter to view and analyse the NETS results at education institution level, which allows educators to view all responses across multiple programmes and placement locations.  This information is also available to healthcare regulators and may be reviewed as part of routine quality assurance processes.  To access this version of the NETS Reporting Tool, please contact the team at england.nets@nhs.net.

The October 2024 NETS results will be published on our website in 2025.

What is being asked in the survey?

Each learner will be presented with the same core questionnaire followed by a series of profession-specific questions (professional branching questions).  We have incorporated additional health and wellbeing and equality, diversity and inclusion questions focusing on learner experience of discrimination in the practice learning environment. 

The results from NETS supported the publication of the inaugural 2023 NHS England Deans’ Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report and the 2023-24 HEE Deans' EDI Quality Improvement Plan.

The core questionnaire and full range of profession-specific questions are available to view on our website.

Who is eligible to complete the NETS?

All undergraduate and postgraduate students, trainees and doctors and dentists in training undertaking a training post or practice placement as part of their education and training programme are eligible to complete the survey. 

This includes the following professional groups:

Advanced Clinical Practice (ACP): All ACP learners.

Allied Health Profession (AHP): All pre-and-post registration AHP learners.

Apprenticeships: All apprenticeship learners undertaking a placement or post in healthcare.

Dental Postgraduate: Dental Public Health, all postgraduate dental training programmes.

Healthcare assistant, health visiting staff and other support staff: Learners studying towards a health and social care qualification.

Healthcare Science: Learners on Healthcare Science programmes, including the Scientist Training Programme (STP), Higher Specialist Scientist Training Programme (HSST), Echocardiography Training Programme (ETP), and Practitioner Training Programme (PTP).

Medical and Dental Undergraduate: Learners at medical or dental schools studying towards an undergraduate medical or dental degree.

Medicine Postgraduate: Medicine Public Health, all postgraduate medical training programmes.

Midwifery: All midwifery learners, including those returning to practice.

Nursing: All nursing learners, including trainee nursing associates.

Pharmacy: All GP trainee pharmacists, trainee pharmacists, pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians and undergraduate pharmacy learners.

Physician Associates: All learners undertaking physician associate training.

Psychological Professions: All learners undertaking a placement or training post in a psychological profession. 

Scientific, therapeutic and technical: Learners undertaking a professionally qualified clinical or scientific education and training programme.

How can learners access NETS?

The NETS will open on Tuesday 1 October and will remain open for the next eight weeks until Tuesday 26 November.  The NETS is available here.

To help to signpost and share the survey with learners, a range of promotional materials and a direct email invitation are available.

Will student responses be confidential?

The survey respects the privacy of those taking part, individual responses are confidential with personally identifiable information only disclosed to education and placement providers when a serious concern is identified. 

Who runs the NETS?

The NETS is commissioned and managed by NHS England.

What should I do if an eligible student is unable to complete the survey?

Please contact us at england.nets@nhs.net.

How can I increase the response rate for my organisation, hospital or practice, including:

The NETS is a requirement in the NHS Education Contract and education and placement providers are expected to ensure that all healthcare learners have access to the survey and are encouraged to complete the survey. 

There are several ways to promote the NETS within your organisation, hospital or practice, using the communication toolkit, including:  

Sharing a direct email invitation with all students undertaking a practice placement or training post as part of their education and training programme.

Asking Student Representatives to promote the NETS within each cohort and encouraging their peers to complete the survey.

Signposting the survey during planned teaching or training sessions.

Adding a promotional feature to Intranet sites, statutory and mandatory training, virtual learning environments and e-learning packages.

Displaying posters and flyers in relevant areas, such as rest areas, student unions and education centres.

Discussing the NETS via organisation/hospital/practice social media accounts.

To receive a copy of the communication toolkit, please e-mail england.nets@nhs.net.