Raising the bar – Shape of caring review

Health Education England has published Raising the Bar: Shape of Caring: A Review of the Future Education and Training of Registered Nurses and Care Assistants. (March 2015). The objective of  the review to ensure that throughout their careers nurses and care assistants receive consistent high quality education and training which supports high quality care over the next 15 years.

Bringing together findings and expertise from recent major reports, the review intends to promote good practice from across the country and provoke wide debate on a number of high profile issues relating to the education and training of care assistants and nurses.

The report makes 34 recommendations: around eight themes.

Theme 1: Enhancing co-production and the voice of the patient
Theme 2: Valuing care assistants
Theme 3: Widening access for care assistants to enter the nursing profession
Theme 4: Assuring flexibility in nursing
Theme 5: Assuring a high-quality learning environment in undergraduate nursing education
Theme 6: Assuring predictable and sustainable access to ongoing learning and development for registered nurses
Theme 7: Supporting and enabling research, innovation and evidence-based practice
Theme 8: Funding and commissioning levers to support future education and training

A consultation and development phase will take place before any of the recommendations are taken forward, and is planned for late spring and early summer 2015.

• Follow progress  here.