Meeting Date
Report Title
Paper Number
SMT – 17 February 2014
Non-Medical (NMET) Placement Tariff
Report Author Kiri Sydenham, Assistant Finance Manager
Lead Director
Quality Impact
Assessment
Colin McInnes
Report Summary Paper explaining the NMET placement tariff and the progress to date and the plans for the future.
Purpose Decision
Approval
Information

Assurance
Recommendation To approve and proceed with implementation.
Objectives supported
Mandate

WS&DS

Workforce
Supply

Current Workforce
Development

Excellent
Education

Competent &
Capable staff

Flexible
Workforce

NHS Values &
Behaviours

Enabler

Widening
Participation

Resource
Assessment
Additional information required from Universities.
Not completed.
The Local Education and Training Board for the South West

• what is the NMET placement tariff?;
• how it is calculated?;
• the journey to date and current position;
•
HESW future targets.
2.1 The transition to tariff process commenced on 1 April 2013. In the first year, the NMET placement tariff was paid at 65% of the tariff rate of £3,175 per 1
Whole Time Equivalent (WTE). From 1 April 2014, the NMET placement tariff will be paid at 100% of the tariff rate of £3,175 per 1 WTE. The market forces factor for each provider is applied to the tariff rate.
2.2 The NMET placement tariff is currently being paid to South West trusts that have a Learning and Development Agreement (LDA) in place with Health
Education South West (HESW).
2.3 The NMET placement tariff is intended to cover clinical placements in the following pre-registration areas:-
• nurses;
• midwives;
• chiropodists/podiatrists;
• dieticians;
• occupational therapists;
• operating department practitioners;
• orthoptists;
• physiotherapists;
• prosthetists/orthotists;
• radiographers;
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• speech and language therapists;
• psychologists;
• audiologists;
• pharmacists.
3.1 The NMET placement tariff is calculated as:-
£ NMET placement tariff = WTE x £3,175 (65% for 1 st year) x market forces factor
WTE = Total No of student placement days (7.5 hours/day) / 5 (days/week) / 37 weeks
3.2 The Department of Health (DH) recommended that the NMET placement tariff be calculated using 37 weeks as this represents the average number of weeks that students are at University each year.
4.1 The student placement data for the financial year 2011/12 was collected from the Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) in June 2012 and this data was used to calculate the NMET placement tariff payments 1 April 2013 to 31 July 2013.
4.2 In July 2013, the student placement data for the financial year 2012/13 was collected from the HEI’s and the data was refreshed for the 1 August 2013.
From the 1 August 2013 to 31 March 2014, the NMET placement tariff is being paid based on 2012/13 placement data.
4.3 In June 2013, HESW received further guidance from the Department of
Health regarding the transition to tariff which included a list of the courses covered by the NMET placement tariff (detailed in the introduction). It was noted that the Special Community Public Health Nursing (SCPHN) courses were not covered by the NMET placement tariff and so from 1 August 2013,
HESW stopped paying the NMET placement tariff in respect of the SCPHN courses.
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Pilot Site Activity
4.4 In July 2013, HESW asked Plymouth University and South Devon Healthcare
NHS Foundation Trust to undertake a pilot site activity to test out the
University data collection and validation process. The results of the pilot site activity deemed the proposed University data collection and Trust validation method to be too complicated, time consuming and it also required frequent reconciliations to agree the data.
4.5 A lot of positive ideas were taken from the pilot site activity test which lead to the production of the placement capacity model. The placement capacity model is a tool that Plymouth University currently use to agree and secure placements in trusts for first year students for the next financial year. HESW would like to develop the placement capacity model so that it captures the second and third year students as well and have agreed that this is the best way forward for the NMET placement tariff.
Practice Learning KPI and Non-Medical Placement Tariff Event
4.6 On 22 November 2013, HESW held a ‘Practice Learning KPI and Non-
Medical Placement Tariff’ Event. The South West non-medical leads from
HEI’s and Trusts were invited to the event where HESW shared its progress for implementing the NMET placement tariff so far and its ambitions for refining the NMET placement tariff going forward. The non-medical leads were asked to generate some ideas for Key Performance Indicators that will be tied to the NMET placement tariff from 1 April 2014.
4.7 Clare Chivers took away t he ideas for the KPI’s to share and refine them with local area groups, Regional Education Coordinators (REG), South West
Education Group (SWEG) and South West Area Placement Partnership
(SWAPP). Work continues to be carried out to further develop the KPI ’s and
HESW will organise an event in the future to update and share the final KPI’s.
5.1 For the period 1 April 2014 to 31 July 2014, the NMET placement tariff will continue to be paid based on the student placement data for the 2012/13 financial year.
5.2 In July 2014, Health Education South West will collect the student placement data for the 2013/14 financial year from the HEI’s. From 1 August 2014, the
NMET placement tariff will be paid based on the 2013/14 student placement data.
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5.3 From 1 April 2014, HESW will pay the NMET placement tariff to all placement providers that take students on placement, including primary care, community care, private, independent and third sector healthcare service organisations.
HESW is currently putting in place plans to ensure that all of those organisations that are currently taking students on placement and are not receiving the NMET placement tariff have a signed LDA in place as soon as possible so they will receive the NMET placement tariff. It is expected that
HESW will have signed LDA’s in place with all organisations who take students on placement by 1 April 2014.
5.4 From 1 April 2015, HESW aims to pay the NMET placement tariff based on the expected student placement data for the 2015/16 financial year.
5.5 In the meantime, this will require HEI’s to produce and agree a placement capacity model to be submitted to HESW by 31 March 2015. The placement capacity model will show which organisations have committed to take students on placement throughout the financial year 2015/16. This includes first, second and third year students. The NMET placement tariff will be calculated based on this student capacity placement data.
5.6 Reconciliation will be carried out at the end of the financial year 2015/16 to compare the placement capacity model against the actual student placement data. It is expected that this reconciliation will take place in July 2016. HESW expects the placement capacity model to be as accurate as possible and for the HEI’s and the placement organisations to commit to ensuring that the model is adhered to as much as possible throughout the year. HESW does not expect the reconciliation to show large variances.
5.7 HESW will frequently review the placement capacity model for appropriateness and any issues will be highlighted and resolved at each review.
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Health Education South West Key Contacts

Clare Chivers, Deputy Director of Education & Quality
Email: clare.chivers@southwest.hee.nhs.uk
Tel: 01752 676 167

Rachel Roberts, Educational Support Officer
Email: Rachel.roberts@southwest.hee.nhs.uk
Tel: 01752 676 169

John Sedgwick, Finance Manager
Email: john.sedgwick@southwest.hee.nhs.uk
Tel: 01823 361 277

Kiri Sydenham, Assistant Finance Manager
Email: kiri.sydenham@southwest.hee.nhs.uk
Tel: 01823 361 281
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