Trusts to be held to account for training funds

Its full response to the NHS Future Forum report, published today, says the government agrees that education and training funds should be “protected” and organisations will be “held to account for using it for the education and training of the NHS workforce”.

A national education and training outcomes framework will be created, setting out expectations on providers.  

The government will “also emphasise the importance of the right investment in education and training to ensure we can develop the right values, behaviours and team-working to provide person-centred care,” the response states.

Responsibilities over training will be passed to trusts in a more phased way than previously set out.

For example, providers’ “local skills networks”, now referred to as “provider-led partnerships”, will have to demonstrate their capabilities through a “rigorous authorisation process”.

The response confirms that the new system of training will not be fully functional until 2013, the new extended date for SHAs’ abolition announced last week.

SHAs will support the development of provider-led partnerships alongside Health Education England, the body being established to oversee the new system. However, HEE will develop and administer the authorisation process.

The Department of Health has previously proposed that HEE would be set up in shadow form in 2011, before launching in April 2012. Today’s document says the government will “ensure that HEE is in place quickly”, although no further timings are provided.

Further details will be published in the autumn in the full response to the consultation Liberating the NHS: Developing the NHS workforce.