Escalating Concerns
Raising Concern as an individual
Raising Concern as an education institute or programme lead
Raising Concern as an individual
NHS England Workforce, Training and Education (WT&E) has a pathway for individuals to raise, and where appropriate, escalate concerns regarding the learning environment.
Please utilise local mechanisms within the placement/training post learning environment initially, escalating to pathway two and three if you continue to be concerned or you feel the first pathway is inappropriate for your individual concern.
Pathway 1 – In the clinical environment: speak to senior clinician/educational supervisor/ward manager/placement supervisor or Freedom to Speak Up Guardian.
Pathway 2 – If no resolution with Pathway 1, contact programme director, personal tutor, link tutor, Head of School, Director of medical Education, Educational Institution.
Pathway 3 - If no resolution after Pathway 1 and 2, or you feel them inappropriate for your individual concern, please use this form to escalate your concern to the South West WT&E Quality Team.
This process does not replace Serious incident Reporting procedures in trusts and local processes should be followed for serious incidents.
Click here to raise a concern as an individual
Raising Concern as an education institute or programme lead
Education institutions and those responsible for the management of approved training programmes are required to report concerns to NHS England Workforce, Training and Education (WT&E), particularly where an issue affects the clinical learning environment or where the concern may pose a risk to patient and/or learner safety.
Raising Concerns | NHS England | Workforce, training and education (hee.nhs.uk)
When a concern is in the learning environment and it relates to students on an Approved Educational Institute (AEI) programme, then the AEI and the placement provider should share information and work together to make improvements
Placement providers and AEIs, where necessary will inform the relevant regulatory body and raise the concern with their System Quality Group.
WT+E South West has a pathway for education institutions, providers, supervisors or program leads to raise, and where appropriate, escalate concerns. While the education or placement provider will remain responsible for the management and mitigation of the concern NHS England WT&E will be able to offer support and triangulation of concerns geographically and across professional groups.
What to report?
Reporting to NHS England WT&E should take place where there are a significant number of areas where the provider does not meet NHSE Education Quality standards and / or plans in place are not delivering sustainable improvement at the pace required
and should especially be considered where there are:
- Persistent issues that are not resolved through actions with providers / stakeholders. These may include persistent minor concerns over a longer period of time
- Major and serious quality issues that may require immediate escalation / action
- Professional and system regulator concerns
We encourage escalation of all concerns at level 2 of the Intensive Support Framework Intensive Support Framework Guide - June 18.pdf (hee.nhs.uk)
Click here to raise a concern on behalf of an organisation
National escalating concerns guidance
https://www.hee.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/Education%20Quality%20Escalating%20Quality%20Concerns.pdf