In its White Paper, Our Inheritance, Our Future, the UK Government announced its intention to set up a genetics education centre that would act as an “enabler” to facilitate the incorporation of genetics into the training of a wide range of healthcare professionals. The Department of Health has now issued further information about the plans for the centre and is inviting expressions of interest from organisations who would like to be included in the short list for tendering for the contract. The closing date for submissions is 24 October.
The NHS Genetics and Education Development Centre will not be directly involved in delivering genetics education, but will work with professional groups to identify the learning needs of different types of health professionals, outline skills and competency frameworks, and develop curricula. It will also support genetics teaching by commissioning and developing teaching materials, running seminars and workshops to “train the trainer”, and establishing an expert resource service of learning resources in genetics. The Centre will be affiliated to the NHS University and will be expected to work closely with a variety of organisations including the Genetics Knowledge Parks, the Public Health Genetics Unit, the National electronic Library for Health, and groups involved in other initiatives in genetics education sponsored by the Department of Health.
The Centre’s initial contract will be for three years, extendable by a further two years.