NETS 2023

From 2021 – 2023 there has been a positive upward trend in the quality of learning experience on practice placement / training post on a range of indicators including but not limited to:

Overall educational experience 85.30% (84.19% in 2021)

Overall quality of supervision 88.13% (87.48% in 2021)

Inductions 85.15% (83.12% in 2021)

Range of learning opportunities 85.78% (83.88% in 2021)

Ability to learn from other professions 87.83% (86.70% in 2021)

87.25% of learners report greater satisfaction that the people in charge value education and training.

Top 5 reasons why learners would recommend their practice placement or training post:

Supportive colleagues                                       80.89%

Adequate education / teaching / coaching         76.46%

Supportive learning environment                       71.03%

Adequate supervision of clinical duties              70.63%

Learning opportunities available                        65.81%

32.29% of learners considered leaving their course in 2023

A slight improvement from 2022 (33.48%) and a decline from 2021 (28.92%)

Top 3 reasons for leaving*

Stress of the situation                             55.85%

Workload                                     49.86%

Overwhelmed by the situation      46.50%

*Please note that learners were able to select multiple reasons when answering this question.

Over half of all learners (57.33%) state the balance between the workload and their learning is about right which is a notable improvement from 2021 (53.65%) and 2022 (53.26%).

42.67% state their workload is either too busy or too quiet to get the learning opportunities they need.

75.23% know how to access health and wellbeing resources in their organisation and 67.65% have felt able to access appropriate help and resources.

The actions set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is our commitment to improving the quality of healthcare education and training and reduce course leaving rates. We will continue to work with students, HEIs, royal colleges and clinical placement providers to understand and address the reasons students leave training and the variation in their experiences.

Patient safety is about maximising the things that go right and minimising the things that go wrong for people experiencing healthcare. It is integral to the NHS’s definition of quality in healthcare, alongside effectiveness and patient experience. The NHS Patient Safety Strategy describes how the NHS will continuously improve patient safety, building on the foundations of a safer culture and safer systems.

79.49% of learners were not expected to complete unsupervised activities or tasks for which they were not prepared or trained for.

53.47% of learners were often or always encouraged to suggest how patient care could be improved.

48.83% of learners were never or rarely expected to complete tasks that they felt did not contribute to their education or training.

Only 1/3 of learners have access to simulation and immersive learning opportunities.

NHS England published the first NHS-wide Patient Safety Syllabus (June 2022) which applies to all NHS employees and will result in NHS employees receiving enhanced patient safety training. The syllabus outlines a new approach to patient safety emphasising a proactive approach to identifying risks to safe care while also including systems thinking and human factors. Levels 1 and 2 are available to all NHS staff and colleagues working across the healthcare sector on the eLearning for Healthcare hub.

Read about our National Strategic Vision for simulation and immersive technologies in health and care explores how high-quality simulation-based programmes can be applied to help address system-wide challenges being faced within the health and care sector.

We have seen considerable improvements with learners reporting awareness of who their local Freedom to Speak Up Guardian is from 50.39% in 2021, 65.02% in 2022, and 70.07% in 2023. 94.51% of learners also report knowing how to raise concerns with 81.83% feeling comfortable to do so.

There has been a slight improvement from 2022 of the rate learners are reporting bullying and harassment (1.53%) and incidents of discrimination (1.84%).

Overall, however, reporting concerns remains low despite learners knowing how to raise concerns.

Only 19.91% of learners who experienced discrimination (by patients or staff) reported it. Of these, 54.44% reported their organisation did not deal with it.

5.42% of learners have reported experiencing or witnessing (5.82%) unwanted, harmful and/or inappropriate sexual behaviours. Of these, only 23.46% reported it.

The NHS England Provider Self-Assessment (2023) reported that 98% of placement providers have policies and processes in place to manage discriminatory behaviour from patients and ensuring reporting mechanisms and data collection take learners into account (95%). The NETS data identifies areas for improvement on how relevant Trust policies and processes are signposted to learners. There is much work to do to enable psychologically safe environments for learners to feel comfortable raising concerns and knowing that when they do raise concerns, their organisation will deal with their concerns. 

Launched in 2023, the Safe Learning Environment Charter supports the development of positive safety cultures and continuous learning across all learning environments in the NHS. The Charter sets out the supportive learning environment required to allow learners to become well-rounded professionals with the right skills and knowledge to provide safe and compassionate care of the highest quality.

In September 2023, NHS England launched its first ever Sexual Safety Charter in collaboration with key partners across the healthcare system.  Signatories to this charter commit to taking and enforcing a zero-tolerance approach to any unwanted, inappropriate and/or harmful sexual behaviours within the workplace, and to ten core principles and actions to help achieve this. It is expected that signatories will implement all ten commitments by July 2024.