Key Messages and links to 2nd November 2020
Welcome to Health Education England’s weekly stakeholder bulletin.
In this bulletin we will provide:
- Weekly messages from the Chief Executive’s Office
- Overview of HEE education and training news
- An update from your regional office
Weekly messages from HEE:
Read recent messages from Dr Navina Evans, Chief Executive, HEE.
There is a future beyond COVID-19 and we have to be ready for it
We are supporting all professions to rapidly grow to meet the needs of patients by:
HEE COVID-19 Surge Guidance
We have created a COVID-19 update webpage for October 2020 onwards. It will provide guidance and information from HEE, which applies to all students and trainees.
This webpage also includes HEE COVID-19 Surge Guidance. Please note that this guidance will be updated weekly, on a Thursday morning. It is not the intention to send on email every week so please continue to check the page for updates.
One career endless opportunities #Choose GP
Applications for Round 1 2021 GP specialty training open on the 2 November – 1 December 2020. Please ‘like’ and follow the #Choose GP Facebook page to keep up to date with news and views and please forward this information to any doctors who may be thinking about career options. Find out more about the GP National Recruitment Office (GPNRO). We also have a number of GPs and trainees who are able to help with local or general enquiries – Please email Daryl Barrett at gprecruitment@hee.nhs.uk to be put in touch.
Dr You campaign launch
Health Education England has launched a new campaign to raise the aspirations of young people to consider becoming a doctor. Resources include videos and other information and provide a useful guide for young people.
Resources include videos of doctors from different backgrounds reflecting on how they got into a medical career, and information aimed at the students themselves, their families, and teachers. Take a look at the Dr You campaign
HEE appoints four influential nurse leaders
Health Education England (HEE) is delighted to announce the appointments of four regional Heads of Nursing and Midwifery, they are:
- Carol Love-Mecrow who will head of the Nursing and Midwifery team in the Midlands
- Christian Brailsford who will lead the Nursing and Midwifery team in the South West
- Professor Laura Serrant who will lead the Nursing and Midwifery team in the North East and Yorkshire
- Nichole McIntosh who will head the Nursing and Midwifery team in London.
Working closely with HEE’s Chief Nurse, Mark Radford they will play a key role in the development of Nursing and Midwifery policy for this priority area and work to support the Government ambition to recruit 50,000 nurses.
A further step toward an alternative route into nursing
Health Education England’s (HEE) Blended Learning Nursing Degree, an innovative national programme to train nurses of the future, has moved to the next stage.
Using a mix of technologies to study with important practice experience, this degree will provide opportunities to more people who have the right aptitude and values but need to study flexibly, pursue a career in nursing.
At a collaborative event last week/month [25/9/2020] a partnership of seven universities, HEE and others discussed the next steps to delivery of the programme, while beginning to build a network for knowledge sharing and best practice.
Universities are working towards the first students starting their courses from early 2021. HEE Blended Learning
Interim Foundation Pharmacist Programme update
We are really encouraged by the number of provisional registrants that have signed up to the Interim Foundation Pharmacist Programme (IFPP) at this stage, and new registrations continue to roll in. The IFPP is a new HEE-funded education and training programme, designed to support the 2019/20 cohort of pre-registration pharmacists whose training and registration have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme also provides a unique opportunity to accelerate pharmacist early years’ education and training reform and supports delivery of the NHS People Plan for 2020/21.
HEE-funded resources are being developed and shared, to prepare all eligible participants for their regulatory assessment in the first quarter of 2021 and to support their professional development. The IFPP library of resources is now live on the NHS Learning Hub, while access to NHS OpenAthens has been secured for all participants. This library is available to all, irrespective of their employment status
We are also providing free access to the RPS Provisional Registrations Service Support Line. This is a dedicated support line for provisionally registered pharmacists, staffed by the RPS professional support team.
Another key benefit of the IFPP is access to education supervision for those who do not have access to established foundation training programmes through their employer.
More information including FAQs and the registration form are published on the IFPP website.
Please encourage provisionally registered pharmacists to register for the programme.
The programme team is sending weekly updates about the IFPP. We encourage you to subscribe to these updates by emailing fpp@hee.nhs.uk, stating ‘IFPP Updates’ in the subject header.
HEE Annual Report
The HEE annual report is now published and so we can look back at some of our key success of the last year. It has been an unprecedented time in the NHS in the last few months due to the impact of COVID-19 on services, the workforce and of course patients. HEE’s people played their role by helping over 30,000 students and trainees offer their services to the front line. We have worked in partnership with NHS England and NHS Improvement, the Department of Health and Social Care, HEIs, employers and professional regulators to support the system when it needed it most. We also provided global education through our HEE-elearning for healthcare Covid-19 programme, free of charge.
We are ensuring core HEE work to support our NHS colleagues continues:
Students on placement – ‘essential worker’ status and access to COVID tests
The DHSC has updated its guidance to make it explicit that students on placement should be regarded as essential workers and be given the same priority access to COVID tests as other healthcare workers. This guidance may help if a student needs a test and there are issues gaining access to one.
Funding through COVID – recap
At the outbreak of the pandemic, HEE committed to continuing to provide its education and training payments irrespective of how that education and training is delivered.
From 1 September (and 1 August in some cases), we went back to making payments based on the volume and type of activity that is undertaken. Activity driven payments are now, and will continue to be, HEE’s default funding approach as we continue to support providers through the pandemic response.
For full information about the financial arrangements, please visit the Funding section of the HEE website.
National Education and Training Survey (NETS)
The HEE National Education and Training Survey (NETS) 2020 runs throughout November (3rd-30th). This is the only national survey open to all healthcare trainees and students across all clinical learning environments The NETS gathers opinions from students about their time in clinical placements, asking them to provide feedback on what worked well and what they think could be improved. Survey results offer universities, colleges, healthcare placement providers and HEE further insight into the quality of the clinical learning environment.
This year, as students may be undertaking clinical placements during pandemic surges, the survey provides an additional opportunity to understand their experience and any impact on the quality of training. Please help by promoting this to students and trainees – Complete the survey (Opens 3 November)
Step into the NHS competition winners
A 10-year-old girl from Devon has been named national winner in HEE’s annual contest designed to help primary school children learn about roles in the NHS. Lucy Stephenson used her creativity to create an inspiring song about some of the jobs within the NHS and scooped top prize. Find out more about Lucy’s Step into the NHS competition win.
Meanwhile in the competition for Secondary schools, Four pupils from The Belvedere Academy, Liverpool, have been named national winners in the contest designed to help young people consider a career in the NHS after creating a fun and informative video to showcase the role of an NHS innovation consultant. Find out more about the Step into the NHS secondary school competition winners.
Quality Strategy Refresh
During November HEE will be hosting several stakeholder workshop sessions to explore the key areas our Quality strategy and framework need to cover and to hear from you, our partners, about your own work in this space.
Our aim is to work collaboratively to ensure our approach to education and training is truly multi-professional, to engage as widely as possible, and ultimately, to co-create a Quality strategy and framework that supports high quality education and training in the learning environment.
Please let us know which virtual session you would like to attend by completing this short form.
New competence framework for mental health peer support workers
Health Education England has published new guidance to help expand and boost the quality of mental health support services. The new competence framework aims to strengthen training and help drive recruitment and diversity within the mental health peer support workforce, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan and People Plan.
Library and Knowledge specialist give health professionals the gift of time
Health professionals are being given an invaluable gift of time a report to and All-Party Parliamentary Group learned this week/month [Mon 2 Nov 2020] with the publication of a report clearly outlining the true value NHS Library and Knowledge Services.
Librarians and knowledge specialists make the gathering of information as easy as possible for healthcare professionals, relieving the burden of sourcing and synthesising evidence while enabling NHS organisations to meet their statutory obligations to get evidence into practice across the service.
Health Education England (HEE) commissioned the report Library and Knowledge Services Value Proposition: The Gift of Time.
Looking to build your knowledge of genomics in healthcare?
The Genomics Education Programme has a limited number of funded Master’s-level CPPD courses and qualifications in genomics available through their partner universities. Open to all NHS employees in England, funding is available for courses that commence before 31st March 2021.You can find out more about the modules available, funding options and how to apply on the Genomics Education Programme website.
We are making sure all professions have the training they need to make a difference:
Care Certificate sessions re-designed to support mobile phone users
HEE elfh has worked with Care Certificate leads in Health Education England and Skills for Care to ensure the Care Certificate elearning sessions are easy to access on a mobile phone. The re-design was initiated by feedback from learners and educational leads and reflects the different ways our users are now accessing learning.
The Care Certificate programme is a set of core standards that health and social care support workers adhere to during their daily working life.
The elearning programme underpins the theoretical learning for each standard, and there are also scenarios which support its completion in a wide range of care settings.
Designed with the unregistered workforce in mind, the Care Certificate was developed to provide standardised, structured learning at the beginning of a career in care. This aims to ensure that care workers have the same introduction to fundamental skills, knowledge and behaviours to support the provision of compassionate, safe, quality care to the individuals in their care.
The re-designed sessions include the same learning objectives and content as the previous versions and are suitable for learners accessing the resource on a desktop, laptop and tablet as well as on a mobile phone.
More information about the Care Certificate elearning programme is available here.
SCRIPT – supporting safer prescribing practices in primary and secondary care settings
The SCRIPT elearning programme provides portfolios of modules specifically for healthcare professionals working in primary and secondary care settings.
The European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT) Working Group on education reviewed different types of digital learning used to teach rational prescribing and assessed their effect on learner-related and clinically relevant outcomes.
The EACPT working group concluded that: “elearning is the most-used type of digital learning for safe and effective prescribing education and is efficacious in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate prescribers the required knowledge, skills, and attitudes.”
SCRIPT modules cover a range of topics relating to prescribing, therapeutics and medicines safety and are categorised into different themes. Modules are suitable for any prescriber or anybody in training to be a prescriber, for example. foundation trainees, undergraduate medical students, doctors and non-medical prescribers.
Themes include:
- Principles of prescribing
- Prescribing in medical emergencies
- Prescribing in special circumstances
- Therapeutic groups
Each module takes approximately 60 minutes to complete. All course materials have been authored by a team of expert healthcare professionals and are regularly reviewed and updated.
What are the benefits in using the SCRIPT elearning programmes?
- Safer prescribing
SCRIPT enhances knowledge and confidence in prescribing correctly, improving patient safety, therapeutics and medicines management. - Professional development
Certificates are made available on completion of a module, which can be used for online learning portfolios as evidence of continuing professional development. - Flexible learning
SCRIPT is easily accessible and intuitive to use, allowing users to complete modules at their convenience and refer back to modules at any time. - Free to learners with an NHS.uk or NHS.net email address.
How do I access the elearning?
You can access the SCRIPT elearning programmes by visiting the SCRIPT website.
Updates to the Foundation elearning programme
HEE elfh has worked with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to update three sessions within the Foundation elearning programme.
The Foundation elearning programme is a free elearning resource for Foundation doctors.
All sessions are mapped directly to the 2016 Foundation Curriculum and the material is approved by UKFPO.
The following sessions have recently been updated:
- An Underperforming Colleague – What To Do
- Audit
- Mental Health Act
- Psychotic Disorders
- Stress – Bullying
For more information about the programme, including access details, visit the Foundation programme page.
New elearning programme will help physiotherapists treat patients with respiratory problems including COVID-19
HEE elfh has worked in partnership with the University of Southampton, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust to develop a free Respiratory Physiotherapy elearning programme to support physiotherapists treating patients with respiratory conditions, including COVID-19.
The sessions are designed to support existing and newly qualified physiotherapists who want to update their respiratory knowledge and skills to help prepare them for working in daily and emergency out of hours respiratory care.
The programme includes an introduction to respiratory assessment and the clinical reasoning process, plus more detailed modules about auscultation, chest x-rays and arterial blood gas analysis, which play a significant part in assessment and help to analyse a patient’s respiratory problems.
Further topics covered are:
- Oxygen therapy
- Humidification
- Manual techniques
- Active Cycle of Breathing Technique (ACBT)
- Incentive spirometry
- Suction
- Tracheostomies
- Intermittent Positive Pressure Breathing (IPPB)
- Mechanical insufflation: exsufflation MI:E cough assist
- Non-invasive ventilation.
There is also a paediatric module which covers the differences in anatomy and physiology when assessing and treating an infant.
For more information about the programme, including details on how to access, please visit: https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/respiratory-physiotherapy/.
elearning programme available to support health and care colleagues in identifying and responding to child sexual exploitation
HEE elfh worked in partnership with Brook, the leading young person’s sexual health and wellbeing charity, to update existing elearning resources designed to support educators, health and care professionals and community workers in identifying victims of child sexual exploitation (CSE).
The CSE elearning programme aims to build the skills and confidence required by educators, health and care professionals and community workers to identify child victims of exploitation, respond to disclosures and take action if they suspect a young person is at risk.
elearning modules within the programme include:
- Module 1: What is CSE?
- Module 2: Spotting the signs
- Module 3: Safeguarding young people.
On average, each CSE elearning module takes 15 minutes to complete, delivered in interactive formats. You can also test your knowledge at the end of a module and gain access to a resource bank to support you in your work.
Learn more about the Child Sexual Exploitation elearning programme.
The Child Sexual Exploitation Programme is also available to the health and care workforce via AICC and the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).
Learning Hub – mental health resources recently contributed
The Learning Hub is a digital platform that provides easy access to a wide range of education and training resources for the health and care workforce. Organisations and users can contribute and share resources for those in health and care to access.
Colleagues across health and care have been uploading resources. There are now over 700 resources available for the health and care workforce to access and share with colleagues.
Health Education England’s mental health team has recently contributed a suite of resources to the Learning Hub including:
New Roles in Mental Health resources, products and tools
Multi professional approved clinician implementation pack
Good practice in new workforce roles
Transforming mental health social work
Contributing a resource is a really easy process and only takes a few minutes. The resource can then be shared with and accessed by thousands of colleagues working across the sector.
If you have a resource to share, contribute it by logging in to the Learning Hub. You can sign into the Learning Hub either using your existing elearning for healthcare or NHS OpenAthens username and password or by creating an account on the Learning Hub and using those details.
If you would like further information about uploading content, please contact the Learning Hub team.
For more information about the Learning Hub follow us on Twitter: @HEE_TEL and visit the Learning Hub website to read about our journey so far.
Feedback sought on Coronavirus programme
HEE elearning for healthcare has created ten surveys to gather feedback from users on its Coronavirus elearning programme. The programme launched in March 2020 and is freely available to all colleagues working in the NHS, independent sector and social care. The surveys are aimed at all health and care professionals and take just five minutes to complete:
- Allied Health Professionals:
- Diagnostic Radiographers
- Doctors
- Final Year Medical Students
- Midwifery Staff
- Nurses
- Pharmacy Staff
- Return to Practice
- Support Workers
- Volunteers
FURTHER INFORMATION
By following @NHS_HealthEdEng you can keep up to date with new information and resources as they are published. Most importantly are the notifications of webinars being broadcast during the week.
Right now, making sure we are communicating properly is obviously incredibly important. If there’s any information you think is missing on HEE’s webpages, please let us know by submitting your question to the HEE Q&A helpdesk.