The Primary and Community Care Academy is an overarching service which leads on the learning, development and research of the primary and community care team within General Practice, Dental, Community Pharmacy and in the future Optometry.
The Academy is focused on the training, education and upskilling of all of the primary care workforce.
In 2022 the Academy submitted a business case and had approval and investment from the Health Board, HEIW and Welsh Government to develop the Academy vision at pace.
Our key objectives are to:
Strengthen the skills and capability of the primary and community care workforce through training and education programmes delivered through a hub and spoke model by 2025.
Build and deliver a training and education programme that is driven by the needs of the population and the primary care and community workforce by 2025.
Develop and implement a recruitment and retention strategy for primary care in North Wales to address the limitations in capacity by 2025.
Increase the number of Research and Development studies and evaluation exercises within health board managed primary and community services by 30% by 2025. This should be within training hubs and Academy programmes.
Academy Main Administration Office
Address: Llandudno General Hospital, Hospital Road, Llandudno, Conwy, LL30 1LB
Our Management Office is based at Llandudno General Hospital which is a great central base for travel across the region. If the team isn’t out and about meeting with practices, staff, trainees and partners then you can find us in the office taking the opportunity to catch-up, regroup and ensure that we are on track to deliver the programmes and schemes that we have been established to deliver.
General Practice
Training and Development Strategy
The general practice Academy model seeks to meet the needs of the workforce identified by HEIW stakeholder workshops held in 2019.
Valuing and retaining workforce: Creating a stable workforce that feels valued, reflected by reward and recognition including opportunities for development
Workforce Shape: Ensuring a flexible and sustainable workforce in sufficient numbers to meet needs
Seamless Working: Multi professional and multi-agency working to deliver excellent services to support new person centred models
Education and Learning: Ensuring a competent, capable and confident workforce who are supported to meet current and future service needs, and advance their careers
We have three key elements to our Training and Development strategy including:
Establishing Skills, Education and Training Hubs in health board practices
Offering a range of Skills, Education and Training opportunities through our catalogue of courses and free codes to access to online learning materials
Offering a range of schemes that support professionals at different stages of their careers to work in a primary care setting, this includes:
Trainee Advanced Paramedic Practitioners scheme
Physician Associates in Primary Care Reimbursement scheme
Trainee General Practice Nurse scheme
Community Pharmacy DPP scheme
Skills, Education and Training Hubs
Our Skills, Education and Training (SET) Hub sites are where you will find our dedicated Clinical Practice Development Leads and their team of students and trainees. The SET Hubs are based in our health board practices across North Wales and offer a supportive learning environment.
The SET Hubs have been established to support the development of skills and to support the education and training of the multidisciplinary workforce and the next generation of clinical practitioners.
The SET Hubs will support students, trainees and experienced practitioners to develop their primary care skills and knowledge.
In addition to offering student placements the Hubs will also host fixed term Advanced Clinical Practice training roles.
As well as supporting the multidisciplinary workforce the Hubs will also be home to GP Trainees and Foundation Doctors offering a truly interprofessional learning environment.
Research Lead
Our team includes a dedicated Research Lead to support the development of Research and Innovation within Primary Care, where we:
Develop, test and evaluate pilot projects including Welsh Government Pacesetter Projects
Extend the knowledge base in prudent primary and community healthcare, and the multidisciplinary social model of care
Support for practitioners interested in research and innovation
Our Partners
We work with a range of partners across our Programmes and Schemes – we have well established relationships with;
Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST)
Health Education & improvement Wales (HEIW)
Strategic Programme for Primary Care
Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST)
In 2019, in partnership with WAST we embarked on a Once for Wales Welsh Government funded Pacesetter Project.
We continue to work with WAST to develop their Advanced Paramedic Practitioners (APPs) workforce.
HEIW are a critical friend, colleague and advocate for our Academy. We have been working with colleagues in HEIW to develop our Academy programmes and schemes and to share our learning along the way. At BCUHB we are one of the first Health Board to embrace and core fund the Academy model in order to offer a dedicated team and resource to focus on the Skills, Education, Training and Supervisory (SETS) of our workforce in Primary Care in more coordinated manner.
From the outset the Academy has worked with the clusters, identifying opportunities to introduce new roles, establish stronger links and collaborative working. Clusters have been instrumental in developing the schemes to meet their local needs.
Independent and Health Board Practices
The Academy has established strong links across a number of independent and health board practices through the establishment of the Pacesetter project and Internship scheme and has established a number of Primary Care Training Hubs. The Training Hub with a dedicated Clinical Practice Development team funded by the Academy supports a cohort of students and trainees.
