How is the Welsh Government promoting interprofessional collaboration in the NHS?
A Healthier Wales sets out our long-term plan for seamless, person-centred care through Regional Partnership Boards and Accelerated Cluster Development, enabling health, social care, and third sector professionals to work together.
Workforce strategies from Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) and Social Care Wales focus on shared education, leadership, and digitally enabled teams. Digital programmes like Connecting Care integrate health, social care, and mental health data, supporting safer, more efficient care and reducing duplication.
Interprofessional education is embedded in 2022 pre-registration contracts for nursing, midwifery, allied healthcare professionals, and healthcare science programmes, requiring 20% of learning to be interprofessional, including 150 hours of placement for 9,000 students.
HEIW has introduced all-Wales interprofessional education placement principles and a health board-higher education institution working group to strengthen educator confidence, standardise delivery, and evaluate impact through conferences.