Are Healthcare Security Officers members of the NHS Workforce?
While surfing the internet, I stumbled across the Health Education England (HEE) website and saw it proclaimed that HEE is "...the organisation responsible for the education and training of the healthcare workforce."
I also found this comment on the same website: “Every year, we invest approximately ￡5 billion in education and training for our current and future workforce, across 129 different types of healthcare staff. With over 300 careers in the NHS, we also look at work that underpins all roles, such as values-based recruitment.”
I then clicked a link to a Department of Health publication titled: “Delivering high quality, effective, compassionate care: Developing the right people with the right skills and the right values.”
It describes the mandate from the Government to Health Education England: April 2016 to March 2017.
The Foreword, by Philip Dunne, Minister of State for Health, advises that the government (i.e. on behalf of taxpayers) invests “over ￡4.8 billion a year towards ensuring the NHS has the right staff, in the right numbers with the right skills. Stewarding this formidable training system on behalf of the NHS is now my responsibility as Health Minister, alongside that of Health Education England who ensure delivery of the NHS education and training system.”
So, I contacted HEE by phone and by email and asked:
1. Does HEE consider Security Officers employed in the NHS as members of the workforce i.e. NHS Staff?
2. Is any training recommended by HEE for Healthcare Security Officers?
3. Is any of the (￡5,000,000,000) government funding for NHS Staff training accessible by Healthcare Security Officers or by NHS Trusts on behalf of the security team?
This is the reply I’ve received by email:
“Very many thanks for your e-mail; having read the detail, I suggest you contact Trusts direct as we do not use Security Officers. I am not honestly sure as to whether Trusts use Security Officers but it is certainly worth asking.”
Phfffff!!
I then contacted NHS England by telephone (0300 311 22 33) and repeated the same three questions. After a short while and apparently after checking with her supervisor, the receptionist said: “It’s not something that we deal with here and I don’t know who would be able to help you.”
Phfffff!!
So, I stand ready to be corrected but, on the face of things, it would appear that the National Health Service does NOT recognise Healthcare Security Officers as members of the NHS workforce and following on from that, there is no recommended training programme for their role and no government funding allocated to support the delivery of such training either!
Given the importance of the role of Healthcare Security Officers, I simply cannot reconcile the anomaly with the Minister of State for Health's comments or the claims made by HEE. Can you?