Start point:
Until now, clinical education and training has been provided by independent organisations and there has been no driver for them to work together in groups. Indeed, they are often in competition for people to fill courses and placements, and the funding which goes with them.
End point:
We now have a structure which enables the establishment of clusters of education and training providers who will work in partnership, to respond to education commissioners requirements and generate innovation in service through education and training. These groups may include industry or other partners who can bring innovative new approaches to the delivery of training.
How we got there:
Initial launch events gave potential partners the chance to meet and exchange views. From here, a single East Midlands bid has was successfully submitted to the DH. THe process of creating the HIEC began in early 2010, hosted by The Universiy of Leicester.
Background update - EMHIEC
A key part of the High Quality Workforce programme was the formation of Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIECs).
These are co-ordinated groups of education providers working together to reduce duplication, improve quality and value for money, and drive innovation in health and social care practice through education. They will provide a process to accelerate breakthroughs to real changes in the quality of patient care, by bringing together the right people with the right skills and knowledge, at the right time to create action plans for improvement. This approach will cut across traditional barriers between organisations and disciplines and short circuit organisational holdups which have been inherent in the system before.
Engagement events were held during 2009 to launch the principles and potential benefits of HIECs. These generated a lot of interest from a wide range of stakeholders, from both the healthcare and educational sectors. Many key people consequently became involved in developing the formal bid in the East Midlands, which incorporated elements from all areas of the region and was in line with its strategic vision and objectives.
NHS East Midlands submitted its bid for funding to establish a HIEC in the East Midlands to Department of Health in October 2009, and was successfully awarded funding in December 2009.
This success provides the means to establish an East Midlands HIEC (EMHIEC), paving the way for better joint working. It enables the establishment of a structure for the formation of formalised collaborations between education providers and those offering clinical practice placements, such as hospital Trusts.
The new EMHIEC will also provide a platform to develop partnerships with industry, research and third sector organisations, to aid the wider development of the East Midlands’ clinical and non-clinical workforce and enable the quicker adoption of innovation into clinical practice. Integral to this will be EMHIEC’s ability to work with inputs from different evidence sources and agencies, such as the Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRCs), to support delivery of the regional and local clinical visions.
In relation to the quality and productivity challenge, the mechanism will also encourage the adoption of new and innovative ways of educating and training the workforce and improve value for money from the region’s substantial Multi Professional Education and Training (MPET) investments.
As part of this, consistent measures of educational outcomes will be developed to demonstrate effective use of the MPET funding and the impact of that spend on both trainee experience and clinical outcomes for patients.
However, for EMHIEC to succeed, education and training providers must be willing to engage with it in order to work in collaboration with their peers and respond to education commissioner requirements and service priorities – both academic and clinical.
The HIEC partners will now work with NHS East Midlands colleagues to agree governance arrangements and key priorities for the first year of operation, from April 2010.
