Developing Interprofessional Education in health and social care ...

4. Developing teaching and learningNationally, a tranche of organisations (many of which were new or reconstitutedduring the years under review) were responsible for setting and maintainingstandards. 5 Regionally, the organisations included Local Education Consortiasucceeded by Workforce Developments Consortia and then by Strategic HealthAuthorities (disbanded in 2011 by the Coalition Government) responsible forimplementing government‟s workforce strategies and assigning resources and,locally, not only universities as the education providers, but also education, healthand social care agencies - independent and statutory - as practice learningproviders and potential employers.Devolution of government to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland resulted in thecreation of additional quasi-governmental, professional, education and other bodieswith direct or indirect interests in IPE, each with its own policies and priorities.These are some of the many documents generated, which indicated the trendtowards policies across professions and which were pregnant with implications forIPE: The National Service Frameworks (2000 onwards) setting outrequirements for care The Single Assessment Process for older people (Department of Health,2001); National Occupational Standards setting out competencies for the healthand social care workforce The Knowledge and Skills Framework (Department of Health, 2004b) forNHS staff Working Together to Safeguard ChildrenInvestigating when, where and how such policies and guidelines were brought tobear in the planning and delivery of IPE is beyond the scope of this report.Teaching and facilitatingWhile the rhetoric since 2000 reasserted the case for interaction and exchange inIPE to cultivate closer collaboration between professions, developments on theground tried to marry such comparative learning with common learning commendedby government. Common learning was taught in those subjects deemed to beapplicable to the needs of all or some of the constituent professional groups, e.g.5 They were: The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) (see chapter 7); whosebenchmarking statements made learning outcomes and assessment explicit (Yorke, 2002)and included reference to interdisciplinary learning (Davison, 2009); New and reconstituted regulatory bodies which adopted policies for IPE and collaborativepractice (see chapter 7); Royal colleges and other professional associations some of which adopted similar policies; Sector Skills Councils (Skills for Health and Skills for Care) determining the structure andcontent of vocational qualifications for employers to ensure fitness for purpose; National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) whose guidance on clinical practice carriedimplications for education; National Patient Safety Agency (Department of Health, 2000).19