This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Training and opportunities for NHS staff
29/03/2002
More NHS staff than ever before will benefit from learning and development opportunities thanks to the launch of NHS Education for Scotland, Deputy Health Minister Mary Mulligan announced today.
Previously doctors, dentists, clinical psychologists, nurses and pharmacists had their own education bodies while other healthcare professionals such as physiotherapists and radiographers did not. As a new Special Health Board, NHS Education for Scotland will end this anomaly and give all NHS staff the opportunity to build on their skills.
As a single, streamlined body, NHS Education for Scotland will be well placed to consolidate and develop the education and training opportunities currently being worked on by the variety of different education bodies that currently exist for healthcare staff.
Ms Mulligan said:
"Every member of the NHS has a role to play in its future. Education and training are vital for the long-term development of the NHS and its staff. NHS Education for Scotland will play a central role in the modernisation of the NHS throughout Scotland, ensuring that it meets the needs of the 21 st century.
"A well educated workforce can provide patients and their families with the fast, responsive, high quality health care, designed for the patients needs that with today's consumer culture is being expected more often. Patients can also be secure in the knowledge that the staff who care for them have kept their skills and knowledge up to date and are familiar with the latest techniques.
"The NHS has 137,000 staff and NHS Education for Scotland can make real changes to the ways all healthcare professionals work. All staff will have the opportunity to learn about new developments in their fields or start training to new, better positions, enabling each of them to fulfil their full potential.
"More educational opportunities will encourage more staff to stay in the NHS. A better qualified NHS is a more motivated NHS - one which will provide the highest level of care".
Mrs Markham Chair of NHS Education for Scotland said:
"I am delighted to have been asked by Mr Chisholm to lead NHS Education for Scotland. This is an exciting development in the arena of education and training.
"I am aware of the excellent work which has already been done in this area by the National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health visiting for Scotland, the Postqualification Education Board for Health Service Pharmacists and the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education.
"It is thanks to the work of these, that education and training already occupies a significant place in the thinking of NHSScotland and I look forward to building on these achievements and extending the influence of NHS Education for Scotland even further.
NHS Education for Scotland will continue and build upon the existing work currently being carried out in areas such as educational development, quality assurance of educational provision, continuing professional development and management of educational programmes.
Mrs Ann Markham who is from Dundee, was Dean of the Faculty of Education, Sport and Leisure at the University of Brighton from 1989 to 1997 and was a board member of the Teacher Training Agency from 1994 to 1998. She has been a board member of the Common Services Agency for NHS Scotland since September 2000 as well as a member of the University Court of the University of Abertay.
At the moment education and training for specific healthcare professionals is overseen by the National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting for Scotland, the Postqualification Education Board for Health Service Pharmacists and the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education.