Procurement of the Development and Delivery of Level 3 & 4 qualifications (Regulated Qualifications Framework - RQF) for entry level access to the 'Violence Prevention and Reduction Integrated Educational Pathway' with a "Designated Development/Delivery Partner - DDDP"

PROJECT OVERVIEW & ETHOS

A key priority of the NHSE/I's Violence Prevention and Reduction program is to provide organisationally based Violence Prevention and Reduction (VPR) leads practitioners and responders with direct support. This must be underpinned by the need to have a comprehensive and integrated education pathway, from endorsed / entry level qualifications available within Further Education to validated courses available within Higher Education. The pathway should aim to incept and enhance the knowledge, skills, and competency for VPR responders and practitioners working in health and social care within the new NHS ICS/Ps. In addition, such education is underpinned by a dynamic evidence base and related research that continually synthesises the latter. NHSE/I seek to procure a 'Designated Development / Delivery Partner' (DDDP) with whom to develop entry level qualifications for an integrated educational, violence prevention and reduction pathway. It is anticipated that any collaboration between NHSE/I and the DDDP will adopt the vision of a 'Violence Reduction & Prevention Hub of Educational & Research Excellence' that seeks to imbibe synthesise and progress the subject evidence base across the Health Sector.

There is a provisional roadmap to the envisioned destination and there are sound theories and ideas underpinning the proposed approach. These will be developed through the proposed collaboration between NHSE/I and the DDDP. The Project will be subject to agreed timescales concerning the endorsement / accreditation process and delivery of the first courses anticipated to be as soon as practicable early in the first quarter of 2022, although 'quality assurance' will always take precedence over time specified deliverables. It is proposed that the developed qualifications focus equally on learner 'development' as much as they do on 'education.' While education and training typically focus upon additional knowledge and skills, development focuses more on the learners themselves. How they relate to the world: exploring hidden assumptions that lead to points of view, pattens and habits of mind, emotional reactions, responses, and attributions, the intentions behind actions and the impact of those actions upon others, and so on. Development activities can be designed and structured in ways that disrupt old patterns and maximise the potential for change. Culture change is, itself, a complex process which is often frustratingly slow to yield results, yet it tends to follow some patterns and pathways. Culture is enacted in everyday ways of being with others, what people do, don't do, and accept from others. VPR 'responders / practitioners' will need support to develop self-awareness and resilience whilst operationally experiencing resistance, setbacks, and challenges, from themselves as much as from others. Reflecting on their own ambivalence, and the pull of habitual ways of thinking that maintain cultural 'immunity to change', is core to development. This development through an integrated educational framework commencing with the proposed CPD seeks to facilitate learners from first responses to aggression violence through to Violence Reduction Leads capable of ICS/P strategic and operational oversight.

NHSE/I believe that this is an exciting opportunity for a DDDU who can effectively demonstrate how they meet / propose to meet the themes from the project outcomes, objectives and bid evaluation criteria, to develop a long-term collaboration with the NHS in realising its commitment to reducing aggression and violence.