Key Messages and links to 21 January 2022

Welcome to Health Education England’s regular stakeholder bulletin. In this bulletin we will provide:

• COVID-19 latest updates
• Overview of HEE education and training news

HEE COVID-19 latest updates

We have created a COVID-19 update webpage that provides guidance and information from HEE, which applies to all students and trainees. This webpage also includes HEE COVID-19 surge guidance.

To keep up to date with plans for medical training recovery, visit HEE COVID-19 webpages.

Vaccination as a Condition of Deployment: frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) for Pre-registration Nursing and Midwifery and Allied Health Profession Students have been published on the HEE website.

This FAQ has been developed to respond to some of the questions asked by students in relation to vaccination as a condition of deployment. This is a live FAQ and will be reviewed and updated in order to provide advice and guidance. We will continue to work with the Council of Deans of Health who are also looking at a number of issues and plan to offer some support and information.

We are supporting all professions to rapidly grow to meet the needs of patients:

Nursing

Pandemic inspires ‘future nurses’ with a welcome increase in school and college leavers looking to enter the profession

A record number of 18-year-olds applied to study nursing in England in 2021, with the COVID pandemic playing a significant factor in their decision to apply, according to a new UCAS report published today in collaboration with HEE.

This has been accompanied by an overall rise in the number of nursing applicants across all ages, with a record 28,815 choosing a nursing course in England as their first choice through UCAS. The pandemic has shone a positive spotlight on the profession and raised the public profile of nursing. This, together with the introduction of the Learning Support Fund, promotion of nursing careers through the award-winning We are the NHS campaign, and an investment of £55 million into practice placements, has contributed to the increase in applications to study nursing. Read more on the HEE website.

AHPs

Newly trained mammographers boost breast screening workforce

A HEE-funded training programme to boost the breast screening workforce is celebrating its first 50 new apprentices. The newly qualified mammographers are now working in the NHS Breast Screening Programme and breast units.  Another 70 apprentices are already in training and will qualify over the next two years, with further intakes planned.

The apprenticeship is part of a comprehensive programme of training, recruitment and career development aimed at tackling the national workforce shortages in NHS breast imaging and is funded by Health Education England. To find out more, visit the National Breast Imaging Academy website.

Allied Health Professions’ Research and Innovation Strategy coming soon!

This strategy will set out a bold strategic vision to support and accelerate the research and innovation agenda for all the Allied Health disciplines and will provide a framework to drive transformational impact for AHP research and innovation, specifically for enhanced visibility, reputation, influence and impact on services.

This Strategy has been developed in a co-production approach, working closely with the research leads of the 14 Allied Health professional associations, as well as a wide range of other key stakeholders. Join us for the launch at our “Breakfast Broadcast”. Weds 26 Jan 9.30am – 10.15am. Register here.

New guidance for diagnostic imaging support worker roles

We have published guidance, in collaboration with the Society of Radiographers, to maximise the contribution of the diagnostic imaging support workforce to deliver safe and effective care.

The guidance sets out roles and responsibilities for diagnostic imaging support workers, including assistant practitioners, at four career levels. It provides additional, profession-specific competencies that complement the AHP Support Worker Competency, Education and Career Development Framework. The guidance will enable services to develop and deploy support workers effectively to meet patient needs and service demand in the context of the Richards’ review and development of imaging pathways. Access the guidance on the HEE website.

Mental health

NHS Talking Therapies campaign

NHS England and NHS Improvement has launched a new mental health campaign to highlight that feelings of anxiety and depression can affect us all – and the NHS is there to help. The NHS provides a range of talking therapies for common mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, which are free, effective and confidential.

Famous faces from across music and radio, including Craig David, Tom Grennan, Laura Mvula, Nicola Roberts, Ella Henderson, Max George, as well as an NHS therapist and real people who have benefited from the NHS mental health Talking Therapy services are supporting the campaign in a powerful new video featuring the lyrics of the Beatles’ song ‘Help!’, which calls on people who are struggling to reach out for support through NHS services – either by referring themselves, or by contacting their GP practice who can also refer them. Visit nhs.uk/help for more information.

Pharmacy

Community pharmacists contribute to workforce survey

Community pharmacy across England has contributed valuable information to a workforce survey which gathers information on staff numbers and skills to help plan the future workforce.

HEE, working with NHS England and NHS Improvement, commissioned the Community Pharmacy Workforce Survey (2021) across England to understand how the size and make-up of the community pharmacy workforce has changed since the last survey was conducted in 2017. It provides a snapshot of the community pharmacy workforce in spring 2021 and will help HEE and partners to inform future planning and investment decisions. Read more on the HEE website.

Newly Qualified Pharmacist pathway

This new (optional) pathway is designed for learners across all sectors of pharmacy, to help them meet their development needs as they enter newly qualified practice.

The pathway aims to link the initial education and training reforms to a continuum of post-registration development. It is also intended to help pharmacists make the transition to more independent learning, and to act as a stepping-stone towards advanced practice. Find out more about funded support and how to register on our website.

Summer 2023 trainee foundation trainees

A reminder that employer applications are now being invited for the next round of the National Foundation Trainee Pharmacist Recruitment Scheme via Oriel.

Recruitment will take place in September-October 2022 for trainees beginning their Foundation training in Summer 2023. The deadline for employers to register to recruit via the National Recruitment Scheme and submit programme information for the 2023-24 cohort is Tuesday 1 March 2022. More information here

Workforce and education initiatives

Applications for the Scientist Training Programme open until 1 February 2022

The Scientist Training Programme (STP) is a three-year training programme that includes work-based and academic learning. Whilst on the programme trainees will also complete a part-time master’s degree at the university offering the chosen specialism. Trainees will complete the programme and be employed at a local level by an NHS Trust in England on a fixed term training contract salaried at AfC band 6. Click here for more information for anyone interested in applying to the Scientist Training Programme. Applications close on Tuesday, 1 February at 4pm.

Our Health Heroes Awards 2022 finalists announced

The unsung heroes of the NHS have their chance to shine at the Our Health Heroes Awards which celebrates the wider healthcare workers who support NHS doctors and nurses on the frontline.

Sponsored by HEE, the awards are open to NHS staff from porters and cleaners to receptionists, gardeners, and security guards, who make up roughly 40% of the NHS’ million strong workforce. Our finalists have done some remarkable work, now it’s up to you to help recognise and shine a light on them; voting is now open on the Skills for Health website.

DART-Ed webinar – Building appropriate confidence in AI to enable safe and ethical adoption

Join the second in HEE’s Digital, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Technologies in Education (DART-Ed) webinar series looking at how safe, effective, ethical adoption of AI technology in healthcare relies on clinician confidence, and how this can be built. The session takes place on 1 Feb 2022. Sign up for a place.

Fellowships in Clinical Artificial Intelligence

We’re pleased to announce the first Fellowships in Clinical Artificial Intelligence, alongside the London AI Centre for Value Based Healthcare. The post duration is 1 year at 2 days/wk, beginning in May 2022. It is open to specialty trainees in the London region and Kent Surrey Sussex region. These fellowships are funded and supported by Health Education England. The deadline for applications is 30th January 2022.

Fellows will gain expertise in Clinical Artificial Intelligence (AI) in an integrated pathway alongside their specialty training and implement ground-breaking work in the use of state-of-the-art AI software in live hospital environments.

For more information: News (aicentre.co.uk)

Health Innovation Placement (HIP) Pilot – applications now open

This new offering from Health Education England provides NHS leaders of all levels and professions with an exciting opportunity to develop through exposure with start-ups and small-medium organisations (SMEs), with the aim of leading on the development of a technological solution to a specific NHS problem. Find out more.

Wondering about BMJ Best Practice?

Want to understand more on how to get the best out of this award-winning, clinical decision-making tool?  It is free to the NHS in England thanks to our HEE funding! So why not take just 30 mins to ask questions, find out how to sign up then navigate the resource that is available on desktop and mobile app, on or offline, 24/7.

Book today – places available now!

e-Learning for Health

Keep up to date with all the latest additions to the eLfH platform here.

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.

Key Messages and links to 7 January 2022

Welcome to Health Education England’s regular stakeholder bulletin. In this bulletin we will provide:

• Chief Executive updates
• COVID-19 latest updates
• Overview of HEE education and training news
• An update from your regional office

Chief Executive updates

New Year message from Dr Navina Evans
We enter 2022 with the NHS facing unprecedented demand. It truly is a winter like no other. The past two years have taken, and continue to have, an inevitable strain on our NHS people and our health and care learners across all professions, whose training and education is a key part of NHS service delivery and frontline patient care every single day.

The pandemic has had a huge impact on us all both personally and professionally. Our learners have been at the forefront of the NHS COVID response with doctors in training and placement student nurses, midwives, AHPs and healthcare scientists, caring for patients whilst doing everything they can to keep their training and education on track to ensure they can continue to progress with their careers safely and enter the workforce on time to safeguard supply.

Our health and care learners, educators and partners in training and education delivery should be incredibly proud of their personal and collective contributions. Vince Lombardi, the former American football coach, said, ‘The measure of who we are, is what we do with what we have,’ and he was right. I can only continue to repeat our gratitude for all that you do. Read more on the HEE website.

HEE COVID-19 latest updates

We have created a COVID-19 update webpage that provides guidance and information from HEE, which applies to all students and trainees. This webpage also includes HEE COVID-19 surge guidance.

To keep up to date with plans for medical training recovery, visit HEE COVID-19 webpages.

COVID Vaccination

Health Education England (HEE) is encouraging all health and care trainees, students and learners, to ensure they have had both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine unless they are medically exempt.

The recent amendments to The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (“the 2014 Regulations”) require all colleagues over 18, who have direct, face to face contact with service users to evidence that they have received a complete course of an approved COVID-19 vaccine, subject to limited exceptions, by no later than 1 April 2022.
This means that all students on placements in any CQC regulated service will need to be fully vaccinated by 1 April 2022. In practical terms this means all those who have yet to be fully vaccinated and who are not exempt will need to have their first vaccination by 3 February 2022 in order to receive their second dose by 31 March 2022.
Please see below for key dates:

• 6 January – Regulations made. Start of 12-week grace period
• 3 February – 8 weeks before regulations are enforced (and the period required between the first and second vaccination dose).
• 1 April – Regulations enforced. All staff in scope must be fully vaccinated or have secured a medical exemption.

HEE is working with the Council of Deans for Health and others to develop a set of FAQs to support students and universities over the coming weeks.

Book your coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccination

We are supporting all professions to rapidly grow to meet the needs of patients:

Multi-Disciplinary Updates

A new e-Portfolio for Advanced Practitioners launched

A supported e-Portfolio route for advanced practitioners has been launched to enable the education and training of Advanced Practitioners. It has been recognised by the Centre for Advancing Practice and will help individuals working in advanced practice roles to be supported in evidencing their advanced clinical practice. It will also give practitioners the opportunity to identify any gaps in their learning and to potentially be offered further learning opportunities to help close these gaps.  Read more on the HEE advancing practice website.

Medical

Less than Full Time (LTFT) training webinars

A series of three webinars are being held in mid-January for doctors in training who may be interested in the option of Less than Full Time training. The webinars will provide an introduction to LTFT training, discuss the trainee perspective of the LTFT experience and give the opportunity to ask questions. Recent research has shown that Less than Full Time training can impact very positively on trainees; for example 78% of trainees reported a positive impact on their sense of work/life balance.

The three webinars will be broadly the same presentations, but will feature different speakers and are at different times of the day to enable as many trainees as possible to watch. We are taking questions in advance of the webinars, as well as live Q&As during the events.

• Link to ask questions in advance.
• Link to join LTFT webinar 1: Tuesday 18 January 13.00 – 14.00
• Link to join LTFT webinar 2: Wednesday 19 January 19.00 – 20.00
• Link to join LTFT webinar 3: Thursday 20 January 19.00 – 20.00 

Mental health

Psychological Professions Workforce Plan for England

HEE has published the Psychological Professions Workforce Plan for England. The plan aims to support local systems to meet the requirement to deliver growth in the psychological professions workforce by over 60 per cent and make use of the diverse roles available to deliver services, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

HEE and NHS England and Improvement are now working with partners across health and care systems locally, regionally and nationally to make this a reality and this plan will facilitate the required actions by all stakeholders. For more information and to view the plan click here.

Workforce and education initiatives

Healthcare evidence and knowledge now a simple search away

The new, HEE funded, NHS Knowledge and Library Hub, is a ‘one-stop’ gateway which, for the first time nationally, connects NHS staff and learners seamlessly to a significant range of free, high-quality knowledge and evidence resources, services, tools and databases, all in one place.

Content of the easy-to-use platform includes over 7,000 journals, e-books – including OUP handbooks, clinical decision support tools – such as BMJ Best Practice, NICE pathways and guidelines and clinical and medical databases.

Accessed via OpenAthens, users will be able to tap into the same system wherever their career takes them.  Start your search or learn more through our short user guides. Updates will be posted on our new Twitter channel – follow us @NHSKFH

Building appropriate confidence in AI to enable safe and ethical adoption

Join the second in our Digital, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Technologies in Education (DART-Ed) webinar series looking at how safe, effective and ethical adoption of AI technology in healthcare relies on clinician confidence, and how this can be built. The session takes place on 1 Feb 2022. You can sign up for a place and view a recording of the previous webinar on our website.

elearning for healthcare

Keep up to date with all the latest additions to the elfh platform here.

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.