Aims of the exercise
- To promote and enable stakeholder engagement on the Centre’s approach to multi-professional advanced practice credentials.
To gain feedback on the Centre’s planned approach, including prior to launching the full approval and assurance process.
Purpose of the webinar
- Explain the Centre’s intended approach and the materials we’ve shared.
- Support your consideration of the materials on which we’re seeking feedback.
- Encourage your feedback to help refine our intended approach.
The Centre’s meaning of ‘credential’:
Credential: A defined, standardised unit of learning and assessment to:
- Develop advanced-level capability in a specific area of practice
- Address a priority, at-scale need on a multi-professional basis
Use as a noun not a verb
Credential specification: The ‘blueprint document’ for delivery by different education providers
Target group: The professions for which a credential is designed, with specific requirements defined
The Centre’s Approval and Assurance Process
Development (stages 1-3)
1. (Bi-)annual priority setting exercise
2. Selection of resources for development
3. Supported development of credential specifications
Recognition (stages 4-8)
4. Review of full specifications against endorsement criteria
5. Endorsement of credential specifications
6. Launch of endorsed credential specifications
7. Consideration/approval of education providers’ delivery plans
8. Recognition of practitioners’ successful completion (via digital badges)
Review (stages 9-11)
9. Annual review of credential delivery
10. Periodic review of individual credential specifications’ currency in response to changing need
11. Evaluation of collective value and impact
The Centre’s ‘gateway’ criteria
A potential credential…
- Relates to a high-priority area of population, patient & service delivery need.
- Feasible to develop and deliver as a workforce development intervention.
- Addresses an advanced-level practice workforce development need.
The Centre’s endorsement criteria
A fully drafted ‘candidate’ credential specification…
4. Articulates advanced-level practice capabilities in a specific area of practice.
5. Is inclusive of professions that can safely and effectively contribute to advanced-level practice in the specific area.
6. Defines a standardised unit of learning and assessment.
7. Supports safe and effective workforce development and deployment.
8. Draws on and reflects contemporary research and evidence-based practice.
9. Is responsive to changing needs.
10.Has been developed through collaboration and consensus-building.
The Centre’s intended approach to credential quality assurance
Key characteristics – proportionate, practical, robust, credible
- Focus on addressing workforce development priorities through a structured, transparent approach.
- Ensure credential specifications are credible blueprints for education provision (tested through the Centre’s independent review process).
- Facilitate delivery by education providers, in response to need.
- Achieve consistency and flexibility, building trust and confidence in credentials’ delivery, outputs and outcomes.
- Assure delivery aligns with credential specifications through approval of delivery plans and annual review of delivery.
- Enact periodic review of Centre-endorsed credential specifications to ensure they remain current, responsive to need and continue to be required.
- Evaluate credentials – in terms of their individual and collective value and impact.
The Centre’s intended approach to credential implementation
Key characteristics – proportionate, practical, robust, credible
- Take a strategic approach via an implementation plan and resources.
- Identify and optimise enablers, while addressing/averting potential barriers.
- Promote a collaborative approach among stakeholders, including education providers, practitioners and employers.
- Distil and share good practice, including through a focus on quality enhancement.
- Promote flexible delivery and take-up, with a focus on realising credentials’ intended purpose (e.g. through the use of digital badges).
- Focus on evaluation and testing proof of concept.
Links with medical credentials
Optimising the value of a co-ordinated approach to credential development and implementation, including in how priorities are identified and how solutions to meeting these are identified.
Potential approaches:
- Complementary (‘companion’) credentials for medicine and other specified professions within the same area of practice.
- A shared credential across medicine and other, specified registered professions.
- A credential in a particular area of practice to address workforce development needs, either only in medicine or only for specified other professions.
- Different approaches to workforce development for both medicine and other registered professions.
Wider context
Potential collaboration beyond England
Scope to explore
- How multi-professional advanced practice credentials might support and enable shared approaches to addressing workforce development priorities on a four-nation basis.
- How collaboration could best occur, while respecting different system requirements.
Potential relevance to regulatory reform
- To consider and keep under review the relevance and value of any possible future relationship between Centre-endorsed credentials and regulation, in line with meeting the public interest.
Stakeholder engagement
We recognise the importance of building trust and confidence in our approach to multi-professional credentials and measuring credentials’ value and impact in inclusive and collaborative ways.
Stakeholder feedback is essential – we look forward to hearing your views, including on how we can engage you on an on-going basis.
