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NHS: Training

Volume 503: debated on Monday 11 January 2010

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent establishing the NHS Graduate Management Scheme for Communications; how many places will be available on this scheme in each of the next three years; and what the (a) wage costs and (b) other running costs of this scheme will be in each of those years. (309486)

The total cost spent on establishing and running the Pilot NHS Graduate Management Scheme for Communications is £1.2 million. This pilot scheme is just one stream of the larger graduate programme. The other established schemes are: General, Human Resources, Finance and Informatics.

There are 12 trainees on the Pilot NHS Graduate Management Scheme for Communications who are each paid a starting salary of £21,733. The total cost (wage and running costs) for each trainee is £100,000 for the two years of the scheme.

This is the same cost per trainee as for the other established graduate management schemes. The pilot communications scheme is the smallest of the schemes.

The pilot communications scheme runs for two years—October 2009 to September 2011, although it is funded over three financial years to cover this period (October 2009 to March 2010, April 2010 to March 2011, April 2011 to September 2011—see the following table for full details.)

The Department’s Communications Directorate and Directors of Communications for six strategic health authorities jointly fund this pilot scheme. The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement manages the scheme.

The breakdown of costs are:

£

Wage costs (including on costs such as national insurance and travel costs)

Running costs

Total

October 2009-March 2010

168,000

182,000

350,000

April 2010-March 2011

343,000

257,000

600,000

April 2011-September 2011

168,000

82,000

250,000

Total

679,000

521,000

1,200,000