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In principle, a common competence framework across the NHS and wider Healthcare sector could make a significant difference to employment administration and the overall cost of employment.

The National Occupational Standards developed for health organisations are already available to all organisations and employees, supported by shared workforce systems. These have not been universally adopted however, a step which requires a degree of consensus which proved challenging even when the NHS was managed as a single national organisation.

There is clearly appetite nationally for a skills passport. When NHS PASA conducted research  in this area, 121 NHS organisations responded to a national questionnaire on statutory and mandatory training with the following findings -

• 90% of respondents feel staff urgently need a Training Passport
• 85% feel that retraining staff who have moved from one NHS organisation to another creates needless duplication of training – assessed as equivalent to costs of £74m per annum across England,
• 95% feel that staff who often move jobs ought to have some means of transferring skills that they have developed in statutory and mandatory training
• 85% feel that national agreement is needed regarding the content and level of statutory and mandatory training.

In August 2010, Attractor posed the question “Is it Too Late for an NHS Skills Passport“, the article considered the potential benefits of a more joined up approach across the NHS alongside the challenges presented by an emerging decentralised strategic framework.

Delivering the advantages and benefits of joined up planning and action on workforce skills will be harder as as the NHS gradually de-nationalises.

What can the recent experience of NHS organisations tell us? Read the rest of this entry →

The Sector Skills Council for UK Healthcare – Skills for Health has recently published the results of pilot work it was undertaking over a year with seven NHS Trusts on a ‘skills passport’.

The system, built by Skillsprofile based on work it has done withing other industries, allows workers to create an online record of their skills, qualifications and experience, verified by qualified line managers, enabling prospective or existing employers to save duplicating training where it is not needed – especially stautory mandatory training if staff move between employers.

Skills for Health endorsed the work delivered by the organisations, stressing the potential to reduce administrative costs associated with taking on new staff and a range of other benefits for employers and employees.

David Foster, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for England has spoken favourably about the pilot, suggesting it had ” …confirmed the case for a skills passport, … also highlighted a range of potential additional benefits for employers, health workers throughout the UK, universities and, most importantly, those who use health services. But is this initiative too late? Read the rest of this entry →