Written question WQ93417

Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) is the strategic workforce body for NHS Wales and is committed to the development of a highly qualified, empowered, and sustainable workforce for both now and the future.

Each year, HEIW produces an annual Education and Training Plan (ETP) for Wales, developed following extensive engagement with stakeholders, to support the health and social care system in implementing ‘A Healthier Wales’. It dovetails with HEIW’s Integrated Medium-Term Plan (IMTP) for 2024/27 and details the recommendations and funding requests to Welsh Government, for education and training within the context of population health, service need and national priorities. The total funding requirement for Education Commissioning and Training is a value-based investment which takes into account the strategic risks of NHS Wales’s capacity and infrastructure, achieving commissioning numbers and graduate employment to ensure the sustainability of the NHS Wales workforce.

The plan is in response to the challenges affecting health and care that will take a whole system approach and the central and important role of education and training in making effective progress. It supports the implementation of the Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care, the profession specific strategic workforce plans and the National Workforce Implementation Plan (NWIP). The Education and Training Plan represents the needs of the system, the increased demand across multiple services due to changing population needs and supports the transformation in support of moving to the preventative primary and community care-based agenda.