Education and Training Plan
The annual Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) Education and Training Plan details the education and training to be commissioned for the NHS Wales health professional workforce together with workforce planning information. Investing in education and training is key to a sustainable workforce pipeline in NHS Wales. It is a core contributor to ensuring our health partners have the capacity and capability to deliver high quality and safe patient, person centred care to people in Wales.
Education and Training Plan 2025-26
HEIW produced the Annual Education and Training Plan 2025-26 following engagement with stakeholders and submitted this to Welsh Government for Ministerial approval in August 2024 which you can see here. Over subsequent weeks and in view of financial challenges, several additional options were requested by Welsh Government up until February 2025 and the final decision was announced by the Minister for Health on 5th February 2025.
The Welsh Government announcement committed to maintain the investment in education and training at the 2024-25 level of c£294m. HEIW has undertaken extensive work to prioritise the original recommendations within the Education and Training Plan for 2025-26 to mitigate the impact of this and to continue to enhance education and training opportunities in many key professional areas.
This has meant a number of changes to the original recommendations produced in August 2024.
A number of important factors were considered when prioritising the recommendations for the 2025-26 Education and Training Plan including, responding to health service need and employment opportunities, system training capacity and honouring previous education and training plan commitments, to ensure existing students and trainees can continue through their education and training pathways. The impact of delays in the final decision on the plan has been managed through a risk-based approach to mitigate impact on recruitment to education programmes.
Numbers in the following programmes have been maintained at 2025-26 levels:
- Dental Core, Foundation and Specialty Training, Dental Therapy Training
- Pharmacy Foundation and Technician Training
- GP Training (target level 160)
- General Practice Nursing.
Several areas in health professional undergraduate education have the potential to see continued growth based on the level of students who have or are forecast to take up education in 2024-25.
In terms of the annual financial allocation, further information will be made available subject to confirmation in Welsh Govt Remit / Funding Letter for 2025/26.
Commissioned areas including fill rates will also be published when available
Supporting resource
HEIW has created an Education and Training Plan (ETP) supporting resource, designed to aid understanding of the annual ETP. The resource, which can be accessed below, includes information on areas of the ETP such as:
- what it is
- how and why it is produced
- its uses, benefits and risks.
More importantly, the resource will explain how the annual plan is a fundamental element in shaping the future healthcare workforce supply for NHS Wales. It is advised that this resource is read before, or alongside the ETP.
If you have any further queries about the ETP, please contact heiw.planning&performance@wales.nhs.uk.