Background
In 2017, Health Education England, NHS England and NHS Improvement worked in partnership to develop a national multi-professional framework for advanced clinical practice (PDF), which ensures that there is national consistency and understanding about advanced level practice.
To build on this work Health Education England are working with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to design a paediatric focused, flexible and sustainable learning outcomes-based curricular at postgraduate level for practitioners from any relevant regulated profession. The curricular framework aims to ensure that education and training for ACPs in Paediatrics meets nationally agreed standards, with an aim of providing clarity and standardisation. The curricular will map to the Health Education England national framework.
Why do we need this?
Developing the ACP workforce provides an opportunity to develop a clear clinical career pathway. This enables the progression of staff in a clinical context, rather than progression into managerial roles.
ACPs can be developed and deployed in all care settings and across a wide range of professions. Some ACP roles are focused upon clinical specialities whereas others may provide a broader service. The ACP Paediatric Curricular Framework Project aims to build on the development of the ACP workforce by developing a clear and consistent framework for Paediatric ACPs across education and clinical work.
Who is this for?
The curricular framework is for higher education institutions that already run or who would like to run ACP paediatric courses at postgraduate level. As the curriculum model maps to the multi-professional framework for advanced clinical practice in England it will enable HEIs running paediatric specific courses to ensure that their advanced practice paediatric courses are in line with the national framework.
It is also for employers and trainee practitioners to ensure that their practice is in alignment with the national framework.
Established practitioners can also use the framework to obtain a wide-angle view of their practice (and/or future directions), it is not primarily intended for this purpose, as robust CPD and PDR processes are much better suited for ACPs with significant experience in paediatric advanced practice.
Aims
The curricular framework will consist of key capabilities and learning outcomes across 11 domains which map across five patient groups: non- hospital paediatrics, hospital paediatrics, neonatal, critical care, and child with complex needs.
The curricular framework encompasses the four pillars that underpin ACP practice: clinical practice, leadership and management, education and research.
Consultation
Our project team of multi-professional leads have produced learning outcomes and key capabilities, as well as illustrations to show how these can be demonstrated in clinical practice.
From mid August until 10 September 2021 we invited ACPs and ACP employers to feedback on the draft curriculum. The results of this first consultation and how we have used the feedback to shape the current version can be read in our phase 1 feedback report below.
The second phase of the consultation ran from 17 November - 15 December 2021. We invited Higher Education Institutions to review the draft curriculum and complete a survey to share their views. A report on the findings from this survey can be found in the HEI consultation report below.
Contact
If you have any queries about the project, please contact us at acp@rcpch.ac.uk.