Health Education England (HEE) is the National Health Service organisation responsible for ensuring the health workforce has the right numbers, skills, values and behaviours, at the right time and in the right place.
HEE had developed a framework that identified the mental health competencies needed by practitioners working with people in the perinatal period, as well as their families and loved ones, in different roles and settings. The framework was comprehensive and evidence-based, but HEE felt it was not being used to its full potential. HEE sought an independent evaluation of the framework, including recommendations to break down barriers to access and increase use.
Health Education England
Nous developed a robust evaluation framework to structure our assessment of the competency framework and inform our recommendations. We then sought data to undertake the evaluation, including through:
We combined the resultant data to comprehensively assess the current state of the competency framework and develop recommendations for its improvement. Our recommendations identified how content, format, communication, promotion and use of data could have greater impact, while also offering advice on communications strategy and sector relationships.
Nous’ clear, actionable and realistic recommendations on the competency framework’s content, format, communication, promotion and data use will inform HEE’s future use of the framework. Improving the framework will ultimately improve the capability of England’s perinatal mental healthcare workforce and in turn perinatal mental health outcomes.
