Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government by what process, during the current development of policy options for Academic Health Science Centres (AHSC), potential new AHSCs can be considered in areas of England currently unrepresented by existing AHSCs.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Department-designated Academic Health Science Centres (AHSCs) along with the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) are all important components of the country’s health research and innovation ecosystem.
The six current Department-designated AHSCs were made on the basis of an open competition, which was open to eligible National Health Service and University partnerships across England. The recommendations for designation were made to the Department by an international independent panel.
The remit of the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) has recently been expanded to become the umbrella body across the United Kingdom health innovation eco-system. The AAC has been asked to consider the role of new AHSCs within the health system and to ensure that they complement the innovation landscape, rather than add further complexity to it.
It is not possible to provide specific details of the scope and nature of the new designation process at this stage given that the AAC is currently actively considering this. However, it is expected that the future designation process would be open to all NHS and University partnerships across England which meet the published specification to apply, including partnerships in areas of England where there is currently no Departmental-AHSC. As with the previous AHSC designation process, any future process will be run via a full and open competition, assessed by an independent expert panel. Rigorous conflict of interest policies will also be in place throughout the process for all involved to ensure any potential conflicts are dealt with appropriately.
The existing Departmental-AHSC designation will be extended until the end of March 2020 to enable a new designation process to be undertaken. The Department’s expectation is that AHSCs will play an increasingly important role in the health innovation and research landscape over the coming years.
As currently, the success of any newly designated AHSCs will require close interplay and cooperation between research infrastructure, including NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) and the NIHR ARCs, and with the AHSNs and wider innovation landscape.
As part of annual monitoring of the existing Department-designated AHSCs, examples of innovations arising from them have been reported to have been made available to patients in the NHS. These include:
- The King’s Health Partners Heart Failure Service, which brings together clinical, research and educational expertise to deliver world class heart care in south London, helping people with heart failure live longer and with better quality of life;
- University College London Partners AHSC adoption of a Learning Health System to standardise data entry and allowing the widespread trialling of novel tools to detect atrial fibrillation early;
- The Manchester AHSC working with partners to align research around core health and social care priorities; and supporting the roll out of a single blood test driven decision-aid for patients presenting with chest pain at local emergency departments; and
- The roll out of the innovative Sleepio app by the Oxford AHSN to support those suffering from insomnia across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what governance arrangements they have proposed for the newly designated Academic Research Collaborations.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Following, a new, open competition, the Government has recently announced National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) designation and funding for 15 Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs), with total funding of £135 million over five years from 1 October 2019.
Each NIHR ARC will have its own local governance arrangements in place, with the named Director of each NIHR ARC having responsibility, and authority over, the NIHR funding awarded to their National Health Service organisations through the scheme. Under the terms of the NIHR contract, the NIHR ARCs will be required to submit annual progress reports and can be subject site visits to evaluate progress, performance and identify key issues.
All NIHR ARCs are required to ensure that research is conducted in accordance with the United Kingdom Policy Framework for Health and Social Care Research and the Concordat to Support Research Integrity and the Governance Arrangements for Research Ethics Committees.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many nurses on the Nursing and Midwifery Council register are State Enrolled Nurses.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The information requested is not collected by the Department.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom and is responsible for nurse and midwifery registration.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many nurses on the Nursing and Midwifery Council register are qualified as nurse prescribers.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The information requested is not collected by the Department.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom and is responsible for nurse and midwifery registration. The NMC reports that as at 31 January 2018, 73,209 nurses on its register were qualified as nurse prescribers.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) nurses, and (2) midwives, on the Nursing and Midwifery Council register do not hold degree-level qualifications in either nursing or midwifery.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The information requested is not collected by the Department.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom and is responsible for nurse and midwifery registration. In order to join its register, the NMC must be satisfied that an applicant is capable of practising safely and effectively. As part of its registration process the NMC assesses an applicant’s qualifications, training and experience against its registration standards.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) nurses, and (2) midwives, on the Nursing and Midwifery Council register hold a degree-level qualification in (a) nursing, and (b) midwifery.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The information requested is not collected by the Department.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom and is responsible for nurse and midwifery registration. In order to join its register, the NMC must be satisfied that an applicant is capable of practising safely and effectively. As part of its registration process the NMC assesses an applicant’s qualifications, training and experience against its registration standards.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what were the total funds allocated for continuing professional development in each of the years 2013–14 to 2016–17 for (1) medical doctors and consultants, (2) registered nurses, (3) registered midwives, and (d) all other regulated health professionals.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Different organisations have a range of responsibilities for training and development. Individual National Health Service employers have responsibility for supporting staff with courses which are required to fulfil duties to work in their organisation and core employment requirements. The Department does not collect this data.
National funding through Health Education England (HEE) has historically been used to support development of the NHS workforce which includes development of careers. HEE invests up to £300 million per year on supporting individuals in NHS employment to achieve registered qualifications and a further £80 million on workforce transformation projects agreed locally, some of which has prioritised training courses for ongoing development.
Going forward, HEE is considering alternative models for traditional Continuing Professional Development funding; for example exploring routes for apprenticeships for post-graduate qualifications that may have been funded directly at a national level previously.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many places at UK higher education institutions were commissioned for graduate nursing studies in each of the years 2010–11 to 2016–17.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The information held by the Department does not separately identify the number of postgraduate trainees on pre-registration nursing courses and includes only the numbers for England.
The following table shows the total number of nurse training places that were commissioned in England in each academic year, for the period 2010-11 to 2016-17. These figures include both undergraduates and postgraduates on pre-registration nurse training courses.
Course | Nurse total |
2010-11 | 20,138 |
2011-12 | 17,903 |
2012-13 | 17,442 |
2013-14 | 18,056 |
2014-15 | 19,206 |
2015-16 | 20,153 |
2016-17 | 20,680 |
Source: Health Education England since 2013.
Financial Information Management System prior to 2013
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many UK-domiciled registered nurses (1) came on to, and (2) left, the Nursing Midwifery Council Register, in each of the years 2010–11 to 2016–17.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The information requested is not collected by the Department.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom and is responsible for nurse and midwifery registration.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional resource is being allocated to Health Education England for higher education institutions to cover the placement training costs for additional nursing degree students in (1) 2017–18, and (2) 2018–19.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
On 1 August 2017, the Government announced additional funding to support clinical placements required in 2017-18 as a result of the increase in training places. Health Education England confirmed that funding will be made available for up to 1,500 additional clinical placements in England for nursing, midwifery and allied health pre-registration degree courses from the 2017-18 academic year.
In order to meet the growing need for more registered nurses in the future, on 3 October 2017, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced a further increase in the number of available clinical placements for undergraduate nurse degrees. This would result in an increase of over 5,000 nurse training places available each year from 2018-19, an increase of 25% from 20,680 available in 2016-17 to 25,850 in 2018-19.
The payments for these placements will be made in line with the tariff prices in the education and training tariff guidance document, published annually by the Department.
A copy of 2017-18 Education & Training placement tariffs is attached.