Community Education Provider Networks (CEPNs) progress update

The original Wave 1 CEPNs, Central Essex, West Suffolk and Great Yarmouth & Waveney, have been functioning since February 2016 and the work they have undertaken in developing education and training across the professions has been fantastic; a brief update follows.

Central Essex CEPN is currently compiling workforce data aiming to create a workforce document for the whole of Essex. They are also working with universities, Essex Primary Interprofessional Centre (Epic) & Equip to develop an innovative 3 year workforce training & education plan; finally they are working with Anglia Ruskin and Essex Universities to increase nurse placements across Essex.

West Suffolk CEPN is piloting a 'pre-reg student nurse placements in Primary Care' scheme and have two hub & spoke sites planned in Newmarket and Bury St. Edmunds. They are looking to increase mentorship capacity to support this scheme and to date have 6 people signed up to online learning and one person enrolled onto a 'preparation for mentorship' course. Six members of staff are enrolling onto the Edward Jenner leadership programme, bespoke learning is being discussed with practices and they are also investigating 'Practice Based Small Group Learning' across Newmarket.

Great Yarmouth & Waveney CEPN has piloted a GP resilience programme with the CCGs and received extremely positive feedback encouraging them to roll it out to practices. Four GP Fellowship opportunities are available and have been advertised with the British Medical Journal. They are assessing the local needs of the leadership teams in the area and exploring available resources for leadership programmes. They are also looking to increase nurse placements in primary care with 3 live placement and 6 more in progress.

The Wave 2 sites, which formed in March 2016, are in the process of forming their individual KPIs and will soon roll out work much like the CEPNs above. The Wave 2 sites include  Bedfordshire CEPN, East & North Herts CEPN, Greater Peterborough Network CEPN, Herts Valleys CEPN, West Cambs CEPN, West Norfolk CEPN.

What our CEPNs are saying...

Victoria Fennel, Project Lead - West Suffolk CEPN said:

We want to ensure that we have the right number of health and care professionals with the right skills within Primary Care to meet the evolving needs of local people.

West Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group have established a Community Education Provider Network to bring primary and community care services and education providers together to focus on education and workforce planning.

The CEPN is supporting the existing workforce with mentorship, leadership and health coaching to assist practices in maintaining the highest quality patient care whilst inspiring the workforce of the future to embark on their own rewarding career journey in Primary Care.

We are building on our existing working relationships with our local university to create bespoke hub and spoke placements with input from the practices to ensure that both the students and staff will get the most out of the experience.

As the project progresses we will be looking at ways to introduce social care placements into the hub and spoke model to encourage students to build a diverse portfolio of skills and a greater understanding of the importance of integrated care.  We will also be looking to introduce roles such as Pharmacists and Paramedics to support practices in meeting the care needs of the local population.