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Turas training programme management

Overview

NES is an education and training body responsible for developing and delivering healthcare education and training for the NHS, health and social care sector and other public bodies. Undergraduate and postgraduate training programmes are managed through the Training Programme Management (TPM) system on Turas. TPM holds information on Trainees, Trainers and Programmes for several staff groups, such as medical, dental, pharmacy, psychology, healthcare science, and optometry. 

Information on the trainees for some programmes are reported as part of the official statistics publications.

What data are published?

An extract of the TPM database is taken to calculate the number of trainees on Psychology and Child and Adolescent Mental health programmes. These data are released as part of the official statistics publications and allow users to see how the number change over time.

  • Psychology trainees are reported by programme over time as part of the Psychology Services Workforce official statistics publication.
  • Child and adolescent mental health trainees are reported by programme over time as part of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Workforce official statistics publication.

Background

Psychology trainees

The number of trainees are extracted at 30 September and 31 March census each year for the following programmes:

  • Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the Universities of Glasgow or Edinburgh, 
  • MSc Psychological Therapy in Primary Care, 
  • MSc Applied Psychology for Children and Young People, 
  • Child and Adolescent Psychodynamic Psychotherapists, and
  • Stage 2 Health Psychology.

Data are available from 2003 onwards in the Psychology Services Workforce official statistics publication

Child and adolescent mental health trainees

The number of trainees are extracted several times a year since March 2017 for the following programmes and from March 2021, data are available for 31 March and 30 September census:

  • CAMHS Aligned Doctorate in Clinical Psychology,
  • Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists,
  • Medical Psychiatry Level 4, and
  • MSc in Applied Psychology for Children and Young People.

Data are available from March 2017 onwards in the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Workforce official statistics publication. 

Vocational dental practitioners (VDPs)

A centralised recruitment process and a standardised training programme is designed to help recently qualified dentists make the transition from undergraduate teaching to independent practice. Prior to August 2022, the programme was organised and administered by NES using TPM. The application process for vocational training takes place annually, and successful applicants start post in August. From August 2022, NES became the lead employer for VDPs and these data are now available from SWISS and Turas People.

Prior to December 2022 (30 September 2022 census) the number of VDPs were extracted twice a year (at 31 March and 30 September census) from TPM. These data were combined with other dental workforce data and released in the dentist table of the NHSScotland Workforce official statistics publication. 

 

Quality assurance and limitations

Quality assurance

A number of steps are in place to ensure that these data are reported accurately.

  1. TPM is a dynamic operational system in which the data can change over time due to their live status and potential additional updates. Accuracy of coding is crucial to the quality and credibility of the data. The Data Group seeks to minimise data inaccuracies by maintaining communication with system administrators to ensure any changes are acknowledge ahead of extraction. 

  2. Once these data have been extracted, we carry out a second phase of quality assurance. This involves: (i) checking for any obvious errors or missing values in the data, and (ii) comparing figures with previous extracts. When required, we clarify any large inconsistencies in the data with system administrators.

  3. These data are then processed and reporting software (PowerBI and Excel tables) are updated to include the new data. The outputs are then checked to ensure the values are shown accurately and any data interpretation or quality points are noted.

The above quality assurance processes result in trustworthy information being released as part of the NHSScotland Workforce publication and reduce the likelihood of any issues arising after publication.