Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Deferred
Paragraph: 50
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 AI-generated
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.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
50
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
Our vision is to create an uplift of digital skills, knowledge, understanding and awareness across the whole multi-disciplinary health and care workforce to support new ways of working. This is being addressed via the establishment of The Digital Academy which is now positioned as the home for digital learning and development. Through this we are making progress in areas such as board education, digital leadership, digital & health literacy roll out and digital workforce planning at ICB, regional and national level. We already have a number of programmes and packages in place to digital training across the wider workforce, including: Digital Health Leadership Programme - A Post Graduate Diploma in Digital Health. 500 change leaders over five cohorts of the Digital Health Leadership Programme, with Imperial College London. Topol Digital Fellowship - Providing health & social care professionals with time, support and training to lead digital health transformations and innovations. 150 Topol Digital Fellows over four Cohorts, providing time and funding for digital innovation projects. Florence Nightingale Foundation Digital Scholarship - An introduction to the knowledge needed by digital nurses and midwives. Health Education England (HEE) has funded over 40 Florence Nightingale Foundation Digital Scholarship places for nurses and midwives. Digital Boards and Digital ICS - Embedding digital skills and awareness across our board level senior leaders, including bespoke development for Trusts and ICBs – engaged over 1,700 board members across around 200 Trusts. Digital Skills Assessment Tool - A new digital skills education tool to specifically address digital literacy, which has been used by 13,000 people. Health Innovation Placement (HIP) Programme - A personal development offering for digital innovators. 20 delegates have piloted the programme. Digital Futures Programme - Two cohorts of the Digital Futures programme provided team-based learning for 60 ICS leaders across health, education and social care/local government. Delivering value with digital technologies - Helping NHS finance professionals to support through digital technologies, in partnership with the Healthcare Financial Management Association. Delivering free training programmes for social care - Free training programmes to support social care professionals to develop their digital skills and help drive digital transformation and change across the sector – delivered in partnership with Skills for Care and the National Care Forum Digital Skills Framework - A draft digital skills framework and training database for the social care sector to help employers and social care workers plan their learning and development. An updated version of the digital skills framework will be published later this year. This demonstrates that government is embedding digital skills more generally, through workforce training, for all health and care staff across a variety of professions.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗