Health Education England confirms arrangements for access to £50m Workforce Development Funding for 2019/20

Health Education England (HEE) has confirmed the arrangements for accessing funding from the £50m it has made available in the first phase of allocation through its workforce development fund to help employers develop their existing workforce in 2019/20.

It has written to organisations to set out the details on how they can access the funding which is available now. Provider and primary care organisations will be asked to show how the funding is directed for suitable training and development as set out in its menu of activities such as developing new healthcare roles, upskilling their existing workforce to be able to take on new or more complex tasks, and workforce modelling and redesign.

HEE cannot fund basic CPD such as mandatory training or to maintain professional registration. These remain the responsibility of employers and employees. HEE also require the funding to be used in accordance with any agreed system priorities set out by their Local Workforce Action Boards (LWAB) which are the workforce arm of the Sustainability and transformation partnerships (STP) or Integrated Care systems (ICS).

Organisations who receive funding will be then be asked to demonstrate how the funding received was used.

Patrick Mitchell, Director of Innovation and Transformation, Health Education England said:

The development of the current NHS workforce to deliver the complexity of work required means we need to think differently about the skills and capabilities NHS Trusts and primary care need to do this effectively.

HEE recognises the importance of making the most of the monies available and so we are announcing funding earlier than we have previously to help organisations put training in place earlier, make plans to release staff and investigate opportunities for local collaboration.