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KPMG recommendations for consideration

  1. HEIW and education providers to consider their role in supporting newly qualified and registered nurses, midwives and allied health professionals and whether a consistent approach across HEIW would be appropriate and have a positive impact.
  2. HEIW to consider how practice learning funding is provided to education providers and placement providers across all programmes. In particular, linking to recommendation 6 and the aims to increase multi-professional education and the breadth of placement provision to include increased primary and community experience.
  3. HEIW to continue to consider routinely how student views inform its work, including the quality of education provision.
  4. HEIW to consider taking a lead role in facilitating closer working between education providers and health and care services. This should ensure that changing demands, locally, regionally and nationally, are taken into account in the development of commissioned education programmes and workforce needs.
  5. HEIW to consider taking a strategic role in ensuring the placement provision of education programmes across Wales includes placements that are broader than secondary care. This should meet the multi-professional needs of the service as well as the aims set out in ‘A Healthier Wales’.
  6. HEIW to consider the strategic, contractual and financial roles it currently has and develop these further to facilitate broader placement experience to be achieved by education providers and placement providers, in collaboration with Regional Partnership Boards.
  7. HEIW, education providers, Health Boards and Trusts to consider the current and future digital skills required from the health and care workforce and incorporate within education programmes.
  8. HEIW and the Welsh Government to consider developing a longer-term strategic healthcare professional workforce plan, in partnership with Health Boards, Trusts and education providers.
  9. HEIW to consider developing its added value approach to consider the wider value of education and return on investment to inform the commissioning.
  10. HEIW to consider a regional approach to commissioning to ensure that all regions of Wales have available education provision, for those programmes where the numbers commissioned are feasible and are reflective of the need in that region. HEIW should allow potential new and existing providers to demonstrate how their proposed programmes meet the regional demand for future healthcare professionals.
  11. HEIW to consider the feasibility of commissioning additional providers for the programmes that currently have a single provider in Wales.
  12. HEIW to consider requiring those education providers who are sole providers of a programme in Wales to demonstrate how their programmes supply sufficient numbers of qualified professionals to service demand within the whole of Wales.
  13. HEIW to consider increasing the availability of part time and shortened programmes across Wales and increase the number of commissioned places on these programmes, in line with regional workforce plans and availability of part time students.
  14. HEIW, Health Boards, Trusts and the Welsh Government to consider developing a standard and equitable approach for the funding arrangements for all part time programmes, including ‘back fill’ cover costs.
  15. HEIW and Welsh Government to consider the increased use of apprenticeships in health and care professions if it meets the ‘Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care’.
  16. HEIW to consider requiring increased flexibility to be incorporated in the programmes commissioned, such as exit award qualifications, potential combined programmes or other approaches education providers may be open to develop, to allow for flexible career pathways to be developed. This should be considered with the requirements for ‘A Healthier Wales’ and the ‘Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care’.
  17. HEIW to consider its role across the whole career pathway of healthcare professionals by commissioning a broad range of pre and post registration programmes across professionals’ careers and with a mix of qualification levels, to meet future workforce demands. HEIW should work with Health Boards, Trusts, Welsh Government and education providers in planning the education needs to support healthcare professional career pathways and frameworks.
  18. HEIW to continue to assess and consider, in partnership with education providers, the potential and appetite for education providers to provide additional healthcare programmes.
  19. HEIW to consider continuing to require multiple intakes for the programmes providing them and to consider whether multiple intakes for other programmes would be beneficial.
  20. HEIW to consider taking a lead role, in partnership with education providers, Health Boards and Trusts, to establish an enhanced approach to inter-professional education which facilitates the delivery of the generalist skills and core common education requirements across professions. HEIW should consider requiring education providers to deliver a minimum amount or standard of inter-professional activity as a part of the commissioned programme and encourage education providers to innovate and develop this further.
  21. HEIW, Health Boards and Trusts to consider incorporating the Welsh language skills required from the workforce in their workforce plans.
  22. HEIW to consider Welsh language provision as a part of its commissioning approach, possibly setting requirements or targets for the proportion of students that qualify from commissioned programmes that have a defined level of Welsh language skill. HEIW could monitor this and adjust the requirement or target based on information that becomes available from Health Boards and Trusts about the number of Welsh speaking professionals the service requires.