NW Clinical Placement Strategy FAQs What is the NW Clinical Placement Strategy? The NW Clinical Placement Strategy (2007) resulted from a Regional profession wide consultation focussing on the delivery of quality education in practice for all healthcare students. To deliver the strategy, 6 key initiatives were agreed: 1. An Infrastructure to manage placement capacity and capability 2. A career framework for those in dedicated placement support roles 3. A quality assurance framework for LDA monitoring 4. Multiprofessional mentorship and practice supervision 5. Interprofessional learning 6. Core outcomes for placement allocation NHS North West has strategic responsibility for delivering an action plan based on the NW Clinical Placement Strategy in order to implement these key initiatives. What is the Clinical Placement Infrastructure? This is essentially the North West Practice Education Facilitators and Placement Development Managers who have local responsibility for the delivery of the NW Clinical Placement Strategy, and for ensuring and managing placement capacity, capability and quality. What are Practice Education Facilitators- (PEFs)? PEFs are employed in all NHS organizations in the North West- Acute Trusts, Mental Health Trusts, Primary Care Trusts, and the North West Ambulance Service to lead placement quality and capability, and champion interprofessional learning within their own organization. PEFs are required to work alongside those in similar roles across all professions in their healthcare organizations as well as across the local health economy reflecting student placement needs. The names, bases and email addresses for PEFs can be found at 1
How do PEFs work strategically within organizations, and across professions? The PEF job description requires cross organizational/ boundary working, reflecting the needs of all multiprofessional undergraduate student placements. Such flexibility is intended to support a workforce fit for purpose as services evolve and shift. The mechanisms to support this will be confirmed through the 3 Action Groups in the Wider Engagement Framework. What are Placement Development Managers-(PDMs)? Placement Development Managers work in a multi-professional role, with a focus upon expansion of clinical placement capacity and breadth for all healthcare learners. Collectively the NW Placement Development Network is hosted by Bolton PCT, and based in one of three locality teams across the North West- Greater Manchester, Cumbria & Lancs, and Cheshire & Merseyside. Contact details for the teams are displayed on the NW Placement Development Network website www.bolton.nhs.uk/nwpdn How do PDMs work strategically and link across professions? PDMs work closely and at a strategic level with all Higher Education and Placement Providers across all sectors. Each PDM has a portfolio of responsibility for specified healthcare professions and will take a phased approach across the breadth of professional groups as specified in the Strategy. Responsibilities for each team are detailed on the Network website. What is the Wider Engagement Framework? The Wider Engagement Framework is the consultation and advisory structure for all clinical placement activity in the North West, and the delivery of the NW Clinical Placement Strategy- (refer to flow chart in Appendix A). Decision making authority sits with the Commissioning and Professional Education Team at NHSNW, guided by the NW Placement Steering Group, with the NW Placement Engagement group providing specific expertise to inform the outputs of 3 NW Action Groups. How was the membership and structure of the NW Wider Engagement Framework agreed? The membership and Structure of the Wider Engagement Framework was agreed by the Placement Steering Group as follows: The NW Placement Engagement Group to represent the broader professional clinical placement requirements of dentistry, medicine, pharmacy and healthcare science as well as those of nursing, the allied health professions, and Higher Education. 3 NW Action Groups to focus on delivering the remaining key initiatives of the Clinical Placement Strategy. 2
The Placement Steering Group is responsible for making recommendations to NHS North West, informed by the detailed discussions held at Action Group and Placement Engagement group level. Full terms of reference plus membership can be found at Who, do the Wider Engagement Framework (WEF) membership need to communicate with regarding Clinical Placement Strategy development and implementation; and How? The WEF membership is responsible for communicating/ feeding back to the stakeholder groups/ perspectives they represent as follows; NW Allied Health Professions Network (and wider networks with NHS NW organisations) NW Health Care Science Network (and wider networks with NHS NW organisations) NW Pharmacy Group (and wider networks with NHS NW organisations) NW Directors of Nursing NW Health and Social Care Deans Group- NWUG NW Medical Schools at University of Manchester, University of Liverpool and University of Lancaster NW Dental Schools at the University of Manchester, University of Liverpool and University of Central Lancashire NW Private, Voluntary and Independent Sector Healthcare organisations where applicable NW Placement Partnership Boards/ Groups The Wider Engagement Framework Communication Strategy can be located along with relevant information/ documents relating to Clinical Placement Strategy activities centrally on the Workforce and Education Portal at What are the objectives of the 3 NW action groups in the Wider Engagement Framework? The 3 NW Action Groups are tasked with developing/ implementing an action plan for each of the following initiatives in the NW Clinical Placement Strategy: - Agreeing the interface between the Practice Education Facilitators and Placement Development Managers in the management of placement capacity. - Developing placement capability and capacity by focussing on interprofessional learning and multiprofessional mentorship/ practice supervision. - Agreeing a regional set of core outcomes for placement allocation and management. 3
The inaugural meetings for each of these 3 NW Action Groups are planned for July 2010, with monthly meetings thereafter, for evaluation and review in July 2011. How will PEFs and PDMs work across local health economies including linking with the Private, Voluntary and Independent Sector organisations? This will be confirmed through the 3 NW Action Groups, with the first step involving the mapping of PEFs based in Acute, Primary Care Trusts and Mental Health Trusts and of PDMs to local Private, Voluntary and Independent Sector organizations where applicable. How is the quality of education in practice currently monitored? Processes are in place in all Placement Providers for monitoring the quality of education in practice across the different healthcare professions. The process begins with self evaluation against agreed education quality standards as defined by profession specific regulatory bodies, and where standards are not met remedial action plans are put in place. The views and feedback from students/ trainees/ learners, patients/ clients/ service users, and employers feed into the process. The following summarizes current approaches: - Medical School quality reviews of undergraduate medical/ dental education in Placement Providers against GMC/ GDC (2009) quality standards; - Deanery quality management of post graduate medical/ dental education in Local Education Providers/ Placement Providers against GMC (2010) Generic Standards for Specialty including GP Training; - Education audit for the non medical professions against quality standards set by the different professional regulatory bodies, eg. HPC, NMC, and assessed in partnership between Practice and Higher Education Institutions; - Library accreditation against the NHS Library Quality Assurance Framework (NHS Strategic Healh Authority Library Leads 2020). - Annual Health Checks against Care Quality Commission Essential Standards for Health and Safety (CQC 2010). How will these processes link with the monitoring of the Learning and Development Agreement- LDA? The quality monitoring of the LDA draws upon the findings and recommendations of the above assurance activities and processes, and will be coordinated for each Placement Provider aligned with the 3 yearly contract review cycle. This approach is being piloted in the North West in the financial year 2010/11. 4
How is it proposed that the NW Clinical Placement Strategy will impact on improved quality, innovation, productivity and prevention (QIPP)? With the dedicated roles in place, we would anticipate progress/ improvement measures to include: - Reduced student attrition - Increased student completion - Increased regional first post - Increased breadth of placement circuit - Surplus of clinical placements - Consistency of mentorship/ supervisor/ trainer preparation - Quality metric payments in place - Evidence of interprofessional learning and multiprofessional assessment of learners - Increase in student satisfaction - Increase in Employer satisfaction of the fitness for purpose of students completing training How can funding for future educational developments in practice be accessed? Funding for educational developments in practice is governed by the following: Implementation of the MPET Review which will be informed by a Regional Reference Group. LDA quality monitoring aligned with Education Commissioning for Quality Metrics/ Indicators Further information on these developments can be found at Who do I contact for further information on the NW Clinical Placement Strategy? PEF/ Quality Assurance: PDMs: LDA/ MPET Review: Vicky MacMillan Head of Education Quality Assurance and Interdisciplinary Learning Victoria.MacMillan@northwest.nhs.uk Alison Taylor-PDM Lead Head of the NW Placement Development Network Alison.Taylor@Bolton.nhs.uk Kim Leigh Head of Education Commissioning Kim.Leigh@northwest.nhs.uk 5
Appendix A NW Wider Engagement Framework COMMISSIONING & PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION TEAM NORTH WEST PLACEMENT STEERING GROUP NORTH WEST PLACEMENT ENGAGEMENT GROUP Representatives across Deputy Directors of Nursing, Allied Health Professions, HEIs, Private, Voluntary and Independent Sector, Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Health Care Science NORTH WEST ACTION GROUPS Representatives from: PEFs; PDMs; Lecturers; Practice Supervisors; Undergraduate Clinical Tutors; Post Graduate Foundation Programme Directors; etc. North West Action Group1: Interface between the PEFs and the PDMs North West Action Group 2: Interprofessional learning, multiprofessional mentorship North West Action Group3: Placement allocation and management 6