Capita to set up NHS Digital Academy to train 300 CIOs and CCIOs by 2021

NHS Digital Academy to run 12-month training courses to create the digital leaders of the future for the NHS

NHS England is setting up a Digital Academy in partnership with Capita in order to train 300 CIOs and chief clinical information officers (CCIOs) in the NHS in how to become ‘digital leaders'.

The £6m, three-year scheme will take up to 50 ‘students' for up to 12 months, part time, with courses starting every six months.

The aim is to train up the CIOs and CCIOs by the end of 2021 so that they "can drive health and care transformation enabled by technology and informatics". The Academy will also be looking to "upskill" current CIOs and CCIOs in the NHS.

The courses will cover health informatics, health-systems design, citizen-driven informatics, leadership and management, clinical decision support, knowledge management, data and interventions for service improvement, and "health information technologies implementation".

"This programme aims to cover key areas and skills that will be required by the current generation of CIOs and CCIOs, as well as future digital leaders, to be able to lead and set strategy for digital and ehealth innovation across the health system from large scale health IT systems (for example, electronic health records) to personal health and wellness devices," suggests the Capita advert touting for partners to help deliver the initiative.

It continues: "In addition, our leaders will be able to understand the power of the data these systems hold, how it can be used to support decision-making, planning and delivery of health care."

The Academy was one of the recommendations of the Wachter review into the implementation of IT in healthcare in England and Wales. One of the key observations of Professor Robert Wachter, who led the review, was a lack of professionals in the Health Service capable of driving forward digital transformation.

The NHS Digital Academy was announced by the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, in September 2016.