CPD framework for NHS staff employed in Bands 1-4
LEAD ORGANISATION
NHS Education South Central (NESC)
ADDITIONAL ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED
DATE
Completed May 2009
PROJECT SUMMARY
Progress South Central supported NHS Education South Central to develop a Continuous Professional/Personal Development (CPD) Framework for NHS South Central Strategic Health Authority staff working at NHS Bands 1 to 4. At a time of a changing labour market, extended competition and the need for ever greater cost efficiencies, the project was driven by the need to develop a workforce fit for purpose by addressing skills gaps.
Skills Academy for Health was commissioned to lead a scoping exercise across all 24 hospital and primary care trusts within NHS South Central to explore the education and training offered to support staff working in roles that are not professionally regulated. The project covered staff in clinical and non-clinical jobs with a particular emphasis on the emerging Assistant Practitioner role. Data was collected via questionnaires, interviews and focus groups. Data from the scoping exercise was then integrated into the existing locally-developed framework to produce the first draft of a training needs analysis for the whole SHA. This was then used to draft a robust CPD framework for bands one to four that had a wide evidence base. The final stage was to develop an evidence-based brief for education commissioners in terms of key principles and strategy that will inform education commissioning for this important part of the workforce.
IMPACT
The new CPD Framework for bands one to four will begin to ensure that flexible and accredited pathways of learning, both personal and professional, can enable transferability of skills and competences between organisations and improve quality assurance, monitoring and enhancement of education provision. Although the scope of the project has primarily focused on support staff, it has highlighted the significant merit of working towards a CPD framework that embraces the whole workforce.
In November 2009, NHS Education South Central presented the project and led a round-table discussion at Progress South Central's well-attended Health and Social Care Forum. The project has attracted a good deal of national interest, promoted not only by NHS South Central SHA but also through the activities of Skills Academy for Health.
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