HEE backs Lord Willis's 2+1+1 training model

Health Education England (HEE) has endorsed a new model for nurse training based on the 2+1+1 model recommended by Lord Willis.

The HEE board this week accepted all 34 recommendations from Lord Willis’ Shape of Caring review into nurse education, which was published in March. 

Under the 2+1+1 model, nurses would spend two years studying the whole person intensively, before specialising and training with an employer for a year in one of four areas – adult, child, mental health or learning disabilities – and then doing a final year of preceptorship with an employer. 

Lord Willis called on the Nursing and Midwifery Council to gather evidence and consult on the model, and HEE has now given the proposal its endorsement.

It also agreed to the recommendation that HEE's local education and training boards should ‘explore a model of guaranteed employment for nursing graduates that includes robust preceptorship’, and that it undertake an evidence review to identify the educational attainment of the current qualified workforce.

One of the aims of the review is to help healthcare assistants (HCAs) train to become nurses. Lord Willis suggested they should not have to give up their employment during this period of training and studying, and that HCAs receive credit for up to 50% of their undergraduate degree, based on the work they have already done.

HEE is already taking steps to implement Lord Willis’ recommendation that a defined care role be created to bridge the gap between unregulated care assistants and registered nurses. This role is expected to be an unregulated band 4 position.