HEE board endorses Shape of Caring review recommendations

Recommendations put forward in the Shape of Caring Review were accepted by the board of Health Education England (HEE).

The Shape of Caring review, ‘Raising the Bar’ aims to ensure that throughout their careers nurses and care assistants receive consistent high quality education and training which supports high quality care over the next 15 years.

The Shape of Caring review, published in March 2015, made 34 recommendations across eight key themes for HEE and the Nursing and Midwifery Council to improve the quality and flexibility of education and training for Registered Nurses and Care Assistants.

The themes were:

• Enhancing the voice of the patient and the public
• Valuing the care assistant role
• Widening access for care assistants who wish to enter nursing
• Developing a flexible model
• Assuring a high-quality learning environment for pre-registration nurses
• Assuring high quality, on-going learning for registered nurses
• Assuring sustainable research and innovation
• Assuring high-quality funding and commissioning

HEE’s board also approved the development of a plan to develop ideas to establish a Faculty of Care to provide system leadership that supports on-going learning and development and provide an expert resource on all matters relating to health and care practice and champion excellence.

Leading from this faculty will be the establishment of a virtual faculty of care. Working with regulators, providers and professional bodies, further education and higher education and service providers this will set national standards and competencies that enable individuals to progress using education as a scaffold for career development and facilitate workforce transformation. It will be organic and enable HEE to encompass other professions within the faculty, such as the Allied Health Professions (AHPs).

HEE engaged the nursing, commissioning and higher education community on the recommendations, holding 12 events across England attended by 526 people and inviting written submissions. Some 1,000 people also responded to the engagement process on social media.

Professor Lisa Bayliss-Pratt, Director of Nursing and Deputy Director of Education and Quality said: “I would like to thank everyone who provided their unique insights, experience and expertise at our engagement events across the country and for engaging fully with the process to ensure we get the strategy right to develop a nursing service that delivers evidenced-based care with compassion, discretion and integrity.

Throughout, we found a shared perception that the challenges and areas of change outlined by the Shape of Caring review are real and pressing. We also found, among the wide diversity of people and organisations taking part, a shared prioritisation of patient and public safety and health, and widespread commitment to improvement and innovation that supports this and enables the health and care workforce to meet future pressures and requirements.

While the detail of this was sometimes the focus of difference and debate, there was overall endorsement of the report, with delegates seeing the Shape of Caring review recommendations as timely, appropriate and useful.

Sir Keith Pearson, HEE Chair said:

We would like to place on record our thanks to Lord Willis for his input into this important project. His passion, commitment and enthusiasm has inspired the ground breaking recommendations he has made which when implemented will be transformational. His work has been invaluable in helping us to shape the future for the education and training for Registered Nurses and Care Assistants.