Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Deferred
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Integrate digital training throughout all wider NHS professional learning programmes for staff.
Recommendation
Investment in the NHS’s specialist digital workforce needs to be matched by investment in the wider workforce’s forces digital skills. It is important that digital is understood as a thread that runs throughout healthcare, not as a specialist skill set that is only relevant to some staff and occupations. We recommend that when devising professional training, the Department work with NHS England to ensure that digital training is integrated throughout its wider learning programmes.
Government Response Summary
The government discusses general digital exclusion and past initiatives like the Widening Digital Participation programme. It states it will continue to investigate and learn from existing models without committing to integrating digital training into NHS professional training programmes for the wider workforce.
Paragraph Reference:
50
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
We are committed to enabling people to access healthcare how and when they want. Anyone can be digitally excluded during their lives because our willingness and ability to use digital services varies across time and in different contexts. But some people are more prone to digital exclusion than others—including older, people on lower incomes, disabled people and people living in rural areas. Evidence points to a variety of approaches that can help people to develop digital skills and confidence, such as peer and intergenerational mentoring and engagement through community hubs, local libraries or in people’s homes or care homes. For example, the Widening Digital Participation (WDP) programme which ran from 2013 to 2020 involved pilot projects aimed at widening digital participation in health and care. Phase 1 (2013–16) focused on improving digital health literacy, using a ‘Learn My Way’ digital platform for free online learning and a Digital Health Information network of hundreds of local providers. There are multiagency partnerships across the country which are working to support people to use digital services in different community settings, and we will continue to investigate and learn from these models. Digital Health Technologies