Widening Participation promotes workforce planning and development of NHS staff in bands 1 to 4, in order to improve the provision of healthcare across NHS West Midlands.  Widening Participation has been described as having three core elements:

• Widening access to and participation in learning for bands 1 to 4 of the workforce;
• Improving the representativeness and diversity of healthcare staff;
• Involving all healthcare staff in learning by developing learning cultures;

The Widening Participation strategy will enable organisations to map productivity and justify the resources used to develop the workforce, ensuring value for money and effectiveness of staff.

Our Widening Participation portfolio of workstreams are:

• 14 - 19 Agenda
• Apprenticeships
• Assistant Practice

Each workstream has a sub group whose aim is to:

• promote and expand access to healthcare careers and subsequent progress within the NHS;
• help improve experiences of patients and service users;
• contribute to the promotion of better health;

To find out more about each sub group and the work they are involved in click on the collapsible boxes below.