Health Education England welcomes funding boost for 2020/21

Health Education England has welcomed today’s Government announcement on the outcome of its one-year spending round for 2020-21, which will mean that more funding will be made available to HEE for education and training.

Highlights of the settlement for 2020/21 include:

• HEE funding for next year to grow by 3.4% in real terms – around £200m;
• of which, £150m will be used to further grow CPD and workforce development funding, to be supported by additional funding from NHSI/E;
• the remaining £50m will be available for HEE to support delivery of People Plan priorities; and
• funding of existing and agreed forthcoming pressures on the HEE baseline.

Professor Ian Cumming, Chief Executive, Health Education England said: I very much welcome today’s announcement of increased funding for HEE and this boost to education and training underlines the importance placed on investing in our workforce to deliver the forthcoming People Plan and ensuring that patients continue to receive high quality care both now and in the future.

Professor Cumming said: ‘The settlement for 2020-21 allows HEE to continue investing in the development of the staff we know the NHS and patients need and the focus on professional development provides a major opportunity to improve multi-disciplinary approaches to providing care as well as cross team working for the best possible patient benefit.

He said: ‘We very much look forward to working with our partners and colleagues across the NHS to ensure that we get the maximum benefit possible from this increased investment.

It is a one-year settlement but it means that HEE is in a strong position to do what is needed next year in order to deliver what we know the system and patients need in the years that follow. We expect that in spring 2020 we will once again come together across HEE, NHS England and NHS Improvement and the Department of Health and Social Care to look at what funding HEE and the wider system requires over future years to deliver our shared ambitions for workforce, education and training.

Full details of the settlement for 2020-21, for health and for all public spending, can be found here  https://bit.ly/2ksrd2E