NHS England Provider Self-Assessment (SA)

The NHS Education Funding Agreement requires all placement providers to provide regular assurance to NHS England confirming compliance with the Agreement and NHS England’s Education Quality Framework.

Launched in 2022, the Provider Self-Assessment is the first multi-professional and nationally consistent provider self-assessment. It offers a crucial insight into the quality of healthcare placements from a provider’s perspective of 222 trusts in England. The assessment questions focus on the six NHS England Education Quality Framework domains and NHS Education Agreement’s key performance indicators.

98% of providers report having policies and processes in place to manage discriminatory behaviour from patients. Providers report a high-level of success with having policies and processes in place to manage discriminatory behaviour (98%) and ensuring reporting mechanisms and data collection take learners into account (95%).

The NETS data (2023) identifies areas for improvement on how relevant Trust policies and processes are signposted to learners and reported incidents of discrimination are managed. From 2022 to 2023, there was an increase in positive responses across all EDI specific questions on the Provider self-assessment.

Most notably, providers have reported a 15% increase in providing international graduates with specific inductions and ensuring reporting mechanisms and data collection take learners into account (from 91.2% to 95.9%). In 2023, we introduced the opportunity for providers to share their EDI successes and challenges within their organisation. 216 providers commented and reported successful EDI activity across multiple domains.

The most frequently reported successful EDI activities are Training; Improving Staff Experience; and Development Programmes. Less often cited are Learning Resources or Tools; Data; Employer Engagement, Outreach, and Partnership; Funding; and Organisational Review or Assessment of EDI.