Recommendation BRIS-61: Implement joint inter-professional courses in healthcare professional education and training
From Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report, published 18 July 2001.
Recommendation
The education, training and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of all healthcare professionals should include joint courses between the professions.
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say in progress (27 February 2026)
Please see our responses to Recommendations 1 (Person-centred care); Recommendation 2 (Shared Decision-Making); Recommendations 19 (MDT communications); 46 (professional standards) and 58 (professional competence).
Teams need to train and develop together to gain understand roles and prevent silo working. The NHS Long Term workforce plan contains a specific focus on optimising MDTs, to deliver education and training reform; address health inequalities and facilitate multi-professional team working, which includes overcoming professional silos. This builds on earlier toolkit resources published by Health Education England (now part of NHS England), including self-assessment material.
NHS England’s Workforce, training and education offers online learning courses open to all for completion. In particular the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (‘RCPCH’) has membership and courses for doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals.
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Implemented – Ongoing”. Table row: section 6.2 No. 61, PDF page 100.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
The Government agreed with this recommendation.
In its January 2002 response, the Department of Health said that common learning would be included at all stages of education, training and continuing professional development.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 6.2 No. 61, PDF page 92.
Who has spoken
- DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding