We hope this bulletin will be helpful and provides you with a summative overview of all information, documentation, and announcements made by HEE and our partners.

We will be updating this bulletin as further information, documentation, and announcements occur.

Key Messages and links to 17 March 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.

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

Medical

Training in the independent sector for NHS doctors

HEE has launched new communications tools to raise awareness of the option for doctors in training to gain additional practical experience within an independent sector provider, whilst caring for NHS patients.  The NHS is committed to the training of its workforce and with the COVID-19 pandemic, this is more important than ever. Training recovery and education need to be flexible.

These opportunities are open to all doctors in training within a recognised specialty training programme but will be of particular interest for surgical, medical, ophthalmology and anaesthesia doctors in training. An animation and infographic give details of how to gain access and explains educational governance, accountability and indemnity. You can view the new resources on the independent sector pages of the HEE website.

enhance: Enhancing Generalist Skills

Health Education England has recently launched the enhance: Enhancing Generalist Skills programme. This programme details how HEE will deliver the recommendations from the Future Doctor report and build on learning from the pandemic. The programme will help doctors preserve and develop their generalist skills, supporting ‘whole person’ care for complex patients with multiple chronic conditions, and applying knowledge and learning to reduce health inequalities to address local health priorities.

Our programme handbook outlines the background to the work, and, expectations of participants, with a structure to guide learning activities that can meet the programme’s outcomes.

You can find out more about the programme and download our handbook here: https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/enhancing-generalist-skills

AHP

“Continue the Conversation” campaign for the Allied Health Professions’ Research and Innovation Strategy for England

For AHPs of all career stages – join us for this lunchtime webinar. Part of a series, this event aims to focus on a more in-depth reflection of the aims and objectives of the national strategy that was published in January 2022. This first session will focus on transformation of AHP professional identities, culture and roles. Registration information is available on our website.

Mental health

Developing Practice-Based Learning in Mental Health and Learning Disability Settings for the Allied Health Professions

This guide highlights the benefits and opportunities of practice-based learning (PBL) through placements in mental health and learning disability settings for Allied Health Professions (AHP) students, focusing particularly on the professions most common in these settings.

The ideas and examples show how placements have been developed in these settings and highlight the benefits to students, education and placement providers. Ultimately, these placements offer most benefit to patients, service users and families who receive holistic support for their health and care needs offered by the different Allied Health Professions. Read more and access the guide on the HEE website.

Pharmacy

Foundation training year: e-portfolio orientation workshops

As part of ongoing engagement with trainee pharmacists and their supervisors, we continue to run workshops across England to provide an overview of the new foundation training year e-portfolio functionalities with a Q&A session. Please see the upcoming dates on our website and click the link to join. Recordings from past webinars are available on the Royal Pharmaceutical Society website.  

Mental health specialist pathway

In 2019, HEE launched a scheme which, as part of a multi-disciplinary community based mental health team, aims to train 260 Specialist Mental Health Pharmacists by 2024. The first 50 pharmacists will begin a year-long training to become specialist mental health pharmacists at University of Bradford in the Spring of 2022. The Pharmaceutical Journal published earlier this month provides further information.

A webinar on Opportunities for Specialist Mental Health Pharmacists in Community Mental Health took place on 25 January 2022. The slides and recording have now been uploaded to the NHS Future Collaboration platform. To gain access to the platform, please email england.adultmh@nhs.net.

Workforce and education initiatives

Shared commitment to maximise digital knowledge resources for the NHS in England
To create a future-ready NHS we need to bridge the gap between evidence, knowledge and frontline care. Healthcare is a knowledge-intensive industry so using the right evidence at the right time is critical for patient care and productivity.

Spearheaded by HEE, health and care Arm’s Length Bodies in England which take a leading role in producing and publishing evidence, information and knowledge, have agreed a concordat. This complements the partnership agreements which already exist between our organisations.

Year of the Digital Profession

NHS England and NHS Improvement has launched the Year of the Digital Profession, an initiative committed to building a workforce of informatics experts in health and social care to meet the demands of the sector. A key moment for the year is the launch of the Digital and Data Awards which will recognise the achievements of individuals who work within a digital, data, technology or informatics role, either as their appointed role or as part of their clinical or professional role working in health and care.  The awards are open to clinicians and professionals. Celebrate your colleague’s work and enter here.

Still time to apply for Cohort 5 of the Digital Health Leadership Programme

The NHS Digital Academy’s Digital Health Leadership Programme is a fully accredited 12-month Postgraduate Diploma delivered by Imperial College London. Applications from those employed in England are open from 22 February to 24 March for the next cohort of digital leaders. Learn more about the application process and apply.

Help us ‘level up’ digital leadership development support for independent community health service (CHS) providers

NHS England and Improvement, HEE, The Independent Healthcare Providers Network and Social Enterprise UK are working together to understand the challenges to digital leadership development and explore solutions such as the delivery of a bespoke offer for CHS leaders. To share your views please complete this questionnaire before 23 March.

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.

Key Messages and links to 8 March 2022

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

• Latest message from our Chief Executive
• COVID-19 latest updates
• Overview of HEE education and training news

Weekly messages from HEE

Read the recent message from Dr Navina Evans, Chief Executive, HEE:

The challenge of workforce planning

Ask anyone in health and care sectors what the major challenge is and workforce will be the answer. Then ask the same people what should be done, and their answer is better planning. The real answer is transparent, cooperative, funded social care integrated planning with interventions matched to deliverable timelines. The health and care system needs to work as a collective force for good. To this end, HEE is working with partners to ensure the system has the data, expertise, analysis, and tools to make plans feasible; the service, finance, and workforce alignment to make them tenable; and logical, effective delivery time frames to make them workable. Visit the HEE website to read Navina’s blog in full.

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.

Previous guidance from the NHS regarding deployment of NHS staff from 1 April 2022 has now been paused, as explained in a letter issued from the NHS.

To see the full HEE letter, dated 2 February 2022, please visit the HEE website.

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

Medical

NTEF Insight Event:Greener NHS and Sustainability – Wednesday 16 March 7pm – 8pm

The next National Trainee Engagement Forum (NTEF) Insight Event will take place on Wednesday 16 March at 7pm on the theme of Greener NHS and Sustainability. The climate crisis is also a health crisis – but what role does the NHS have to play?

We will hear from two prominent healthcare leaders who will provide their insights and expertise in this field: Dr Nick Watts, Chief Sustainability Officer of the NHS and Dr Tim Ferris, National Director of Transformation at NHS England and NHS Improvement, with opening and closing remarks from Dr Navina Evans, Chief Executive HEE and Professor Wendy Reid, Director of Education & Quality and Medical Director HEE. This is a free and open event hosted by Health Education England and will take place virtually as a livestream MS Teams webinar on Wednesday 16 March 19.00-20.00. Link to join event here

Mental health

Developing Practice-Based Learning in Mental Health and Learning Disability Settings for the Allied Health Professions

This guide highlights the benefits and opportunities of practice-based learning (PBL) through placements in mental health and learning disability settings for Allied Health Professions (AHP) students, focusing particularly on the professions most common in these settings.

The ideas and examples show how placements have been developed in these settings and highlight the benefits to students, education and placement providers. Ultimately, these placements offer most benefit to patients, service users and families who receive holistic support for their health and care needs offered by the different Allied Health Professions. Read more and access the guide on the HEE website.

Pharmacy

Pharmacist Education Summit: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Over 200 delegates attended our joint pharmacist education summit with the Pharmacy Schools Council last week, focusing on equality, diversity and inclusion. The sessions provided a route for many to highlight emerging good practice and resources, and the keynote presentation by Professor Ijeoma Uchegbu was a powerful call to action.

Delegates committed to developing as allies, listening, and being more active in taking the steps to create a change. We are working with the Pharmacy Schools Council to share resources from the event. In the meantime, find out more in this news item from the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA).

Workforce and education initiatives

Digital Health Leadership Programme Cohort 5 applications

Applications for the NHS Digital Academy’s Digital Health Leadership Programme are open to applicants employed in England from 22 February – 24 March for the next cohort of digital change leaders.

The Digital Health Leadership Programme is a fully accredited 12 month fully accredited Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Health Leadership delivered by Imperial College London and partners through a blend of online and in-person learning methods. All components of the programme will be highly engaging for participants supporting both individual learning and creating a vibrant community of digital leaders.

To support applications to the new cohort, the NHS Digital Academy are running a series of webinars and drop-in sessions where you can gain more information about the assessment criteria and sponsorship requirements. Learn more about the application process and apply.

HEE launches new resource to help treat rare diseases

To mark Rare Disease Day in February, HEE launched a new online education hub to improve the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases.

It comes as the government launches the first Rare Diseases Action Plan – devised jointly with HEE and other partners – to improve the prospects for patients with more than 7,000 rare conditions. The HEE hub, which is aimed at a wide variety of health professionals, features stories from patients and signposts to other useful educational resources. It can be accessed on the genomics section of the HEE website.

New Work Experience Resource Catalogue

The National Work Experience Resource Catalogue is a repository of resources that can be shared to all health and social care colleagues to support the development and delivery of online work-related learning content. Organisations and individuals can submit resources they use in order to share them with others. Anything that provides a deeper understanding of the skills and knowledge required in the workplace for any of the 350 NHS careers (with clear learning outcomes such as, skills events, simulation, demonstrations, scenarios, and Technology Enhanced Learning TEL) can be included.

To access the resource please log in through the Learning Hub and search “Work Experience Resources” at the top of the screen where it says, ‘Search the Learning Hub’. Specific resources can be accessed using the search engine at the top of the catalogue. To share a resource, please submit through this Submission Form.

HEE has created some User Guidelines of principles and attributes to consider when submitting and or using content sourced from the catalogue, this can be found on the description of the Resource Catalogue, or via the link above.

elearning for healthcare reaches new milestone

HEE has reached the milestone of 500 online learning programmes to help educate and train the health and care workforce. The resources cover everything from substance misuse and midwifery to emergency medicine and end-of-life care.

So far more than 81 training sessions have been launched on the elearning for healthcare (elfh) hub. In all, more than 34,000 sessions are available to access, and more than 13 million hours of learning time have been completed. 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.