Health Select Committee publishes first report on ‘Education, training and workforce planning’

On Wednesday 23 May 2012 the Health Select Committee published its fifteenth report since May 2010 and its first report into ‘Education, training and workforce planning’ in the NHS.

Valerie, who is a member of the Committee, said:

“The Committee had concerns that the Government has not yet published a detailed plan of how the new education, training and workforce planning structures are intended to work. This needs to be dealt with urgently if they are to be up and running by the time they are supposed to take over responsibility for the training budget in April 2013.

The Committee also found that:

– More must be done to reconcile reduced working hours for junior doctors with meeting their training needs and achieving high standards of care for patients.

– The NHS needs to ensure that its training programme will allow it to meet its own staffing needs, although the system should continue to welcome staff who were trained overseas.

– While locum and agency staff offer flexibility in NHS staffing arrangements, there are also compromises in terms of quality of care or value for money and so we call for future measures to reduce over-reliance on them in the NHS. More needs to be done to reduce over-reliance on these staff within the NHS.

– The Government’s decision to apply consistency to the way in which providers are paid by the NHS for education and training by introducing a tariff system is welcome. But greater urgency is required if this measure is to succeed before its implementation in April 2013.”

You can read the Committee’s report by clicking here.