Modernising Scientific Careers (MSC) is a UK-wide government initiative to address the training and education needs of the whole healthcare science workforce in the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

(NHS). The initiative won a Healthcare Innovation Award in 2013. Its stated aims are to introduce flexibility, sustainability and modern career pathways for the healthcare science workforce to meet future needs of the NHS.

Background and history

Modernising Scientific Careers is a joint initiative of the four health departments of the UK led by the Chief Scientific Officer at the

Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their o ...

, Professor Sue Hill OBE. It is analogous to the

Modernising Medical Careers Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) is a programme for postgraduate medical training introduced in the United Kingdom in 2005. The programme replaced the traditional grades of medical career before the level of Consultant. The different stages of the ...

scheme for doctor training. The genesis of MSC came from a series of stakeholder consultation events in early 2008 and the June 2008 report "A High Quality Workforce", part of the Darzi Review of the NHS. This led to the publication of a policy consultation document at the end of 2008, which outlined a revised training structure for the 50,000 plus healthcare scientists in the NHS, providing a single coherent framework for all the healthcare science disciplines. The final policy proposals were published in February 2010 in the document "Modernising Scientific Careers: The UK Way Forward".

Key elements

There are four main elements to Modernising Scientific careers: * introduction of a new simplified healthcare science career pathway at all stages of the career framework * new training and education programmes, incorporating both academic and workplace-based training. This includes qualifications and awards and arrangements for assessment of previous 'equivalent' education and skills. * identification of regulatory implications for changing education and training * supporting delivery of the changes. This includes improving communication strategies,

workforce planning Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the effective and efficient management of people in a company or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. It is designed to maximize em ...

, and education commissioning together with ensuring sustainable funding arrangements

Career stages

The new MSC career pathway has four stages: * Assistants and Associates * Practitioner Training Programme (PTP) – Bachelor-level education * Scientist Training Programme (STP) – Masters-level education * Higher Specialist Scientific Training (HSST) – Doctoral level

Implementation in devolved administrations

Scotland The Health Directorate of the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

has agreed to participate in the UK-wide framework for healthcare science education and training, while retaining the best of current Scottish practice.

NHS Education for Scotland NHS Education for Scotland (NES) is an education and training body and a national (special) health board within NHS Scotland. NES is the national NHS health board with a responsibility to develop and deliver education and training for those pe ...

is leading on the work for Scotland and is participating on the UK-wide Healthcare Science Education and Training Board arrangements.

Award

The Modernising Scientific Careers programme won the Workforce Innovation category in the 2013 Guardian Healthcare Awards where it was praised for its leadership in involving patients and staff, professions and academic institutions.

References

External links

Modernising Scientific Careers (NHS Employers website)

Modernising Scientific Careers: The UK Way Forward (document)
{{Public health Medical education in the United Kingdom