Commissioning post-registration education programmes for health professionals

Many of the post-registration education programmes provided by the universities for health professionals are commissioned on behalf of NHS employers by the Workforce Development Confederations. (Workforce Development Confederations were formed from their predecessor organizations, Education Consortia, from 1 April 2001.) This study describes a review of the post-registration education contracts held by the North and East Yorkshire Confederation, together with a survey of post-registration contracting across England. A recurrent theme was that contracting arrangements did not easily allow the purchasers of education to measure value for money. Other key issues were found to be the relevance of courses to clinical practice and their accessibility in view of difficulties in releasing staff. A new form of contract will be introduced by this Confederation, basing payment on the academic credit of courses, which will facilitate cost comparisons with other providers. At the same time a greater level of partnership with providers will be fostered and the risks inherent in the contracting mechanism will be shared between the commissioner and the providers. The review also highlighted issues that must be addressed by NHS employers if Confederations are to be able to commission effectively on their behalf.