Health Education North West

The Modernising Scientific Careers (MSC) programme will ensure we have a healthcare science workforce which has the skills, knowledge and flexibility to embrace these technological and scientific advances for the benefit of NHS service users. This article, which is the third in a series of MSC hot topics, focuses on the clinical scientist training delivered via the Scientist Training Programme (STP)which, following a pilot in 2010, was rolled out nationally in 2011. 

Health Education North West has been able to set aside £1m for each local workforce and education group to develop local programmes that support transformational and developmental projects within their respective area. For the Cheshire & Merseyside LWEG (C&M LWEG) the decision was made to spend the allocated money on one proposal. This proposal introduces an ambitious initiative to support local and national agendas to work differently and deliver care closer to home.

Building Learning & Development Excellence is the title given to a Competency Framework and Development Programme aimed at supporting Learning and Development (L&D) leaders to lead high performing L&D functions.The resource recognises the pivotal role of learning and development functions in enabling a workforce that is; fit for purpose, flexible to service and patient need, and aligned to the quality and productivity agenda.With over 203,000 staff working in patient health care across 41 NHS providers in the North West, the challenge to meet the range and scale of learning and

The Knowledge Management (KM) team within Connecting for Health (NHS CFH), is part of the Department of Health Informatics Directorate (DHID). This team has developed a Knowledge Transition Toolkit to support the NHS capture and share learning as it transitions to the future state.This toolkit supports business continuity, providing the means by which the NHS of the future can build on the experience and good practice of its predecessors.

Modernising Scientific Careers (MSC) is a UK-wide education and training strategy for the whole healthcare science workforce in the NHS and associated bodies. MSC introduces, for the first time, a clear and coherent career pathway and structure for the healthcare science workforce.

It is a contractual obligation for individual trusts to monitor junior doctors’ hours every six months, to make certain that they are compliant with the Junior Doctor Contract (known as New Deal), and that doctors’ pay is correct, yet this process is carried out with variable success across the North West. Therefore Health Education England’s Junior Doctor Advisory Team (JDAT) reviewed a selection of monitoring exercises across the North West, all of which had taken place in the last five years.

The Working Well (WW) project is one of eighteen projects that were first awarded funding in 2010 by the Shine Programme, which is delivered by the Health Foundation - an independent charity working to continuously improve the quality of healthcare in the UK. The project was implemented in February 2010 to address staff sickness absence due to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). During its first year the WW project was delivered to staff in Salford Community Health and NHS Salford.

In 2011 the Trafford division of Bridgewater Community Healthcare Trust developed a project aimed at enhancing the School Nursing service delivery of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). The NCMP involves local areas collecting data on the height and weight of children in English schools in Reception Year and Year 6 to enable the Government to monitor obesity trends (DHOT, 2012).

Advancing Quality (AQ) is a proven approach to reducing variation and improving clinical outcomes for patients in the North West of England. The programme was launched in 2008, with five conditions highly relevant to the North West population, and with a strong clinical consensus around an evidence-base for better patient outcomes. Two years later, Advancing Quality became the flagship programme of the Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) and has been supported by Clarity Informatics’ Quality Improvement Service (QIS) since 2010.

In 2009, Greater Manchester Children, Young People and Families’ NHS Network undertook the expansion of a consultant-delivered service using a ‘Resident Shift Work Consultant (RSWC) work plan’. The public consultation decision to this reconfiguration was to reduce the number of 24 hour consultant-led units for paediatric and maternity services in the Greater Manchester area from 12 to a maximum of eight, and to increase the number of neonatal intensive care units from two to three.