Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made on negotiations in respect of the National Framework Contract between Health Education England and university providers of undergraduate health education courses for the health-allied professions.

Health Education England (HEE) is responsible for commissioning undergraduate pre-registration courses from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

To provide a national framework for this important function, HEE is working with Universities UK (UUK) to revise the existing national standard contract. The revised model contract aims to achieve consistency across the country and to ensure that HEIs are delivering education and training that will result in the right number of graduates with the correct skills and aptitude to provide safe and compassionate care. It will also allow for the streamlining of reporting to reduce the administrative burden for HEE and the HEIs. The new model contract will apply to all healthcare professions, including the allied health professions.

HEE and UUK are continuing to agree the detail of the new model contract and HEE hope to have a revised model contract in place for roll out in the autumn and implementation beginning in April 2015.