The availability of agreed standards of practice are a key platform for driving improved outcomes and increasing efficiency in many areas of education and training. In healthcare simulation, such standards aim to enable education providers and commissioners to focus on designing and delivering high quality Simulation-based Education (SBE)to benefit patient care in many areas of clinical practice. Health Education England supported a 2-year consultation programme carried out by The Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH), the membership body for SBE in the United Kingdom and Ireland, to develop a National Standards Framework for SBE. The Framework document was launched at the ASPiH Annual Conference in November 2016.  The consultation included engaging with over 40 pilot sites active in SBE across the UK and Ireland with their feedback helping to shape the final document before publishing. The methodology and results analysis from the 2-year consultation process are now published in the 2016 Consultation Report.

The Framework describes 21 standards supported by extensive guidance and is designed to be applicable to all areas of SBE practice. It is, however, recognised that SBE methodologies, technologies and areas of application are expanding rapidly and the framework needs to develop in the future to take account of these new initiatives. During 2017, ASPiH will be asking all those adopting the standards in their department or institution to register on-line and to feedback information about the utility, applicability and compliance with the standards. This will include asking adopters to complete a draft self-accreditation process to identify gaps in SBE delivery or resources that could lead to potential compliance issues. This process should not only highlight new practices, technologies or applications of SBE not covered in the current document but also ensure it strikes the right balance between being broadly applicable and being robust enough to drive better practice.  The results of the pilot accreditation system and feedback from the simulation community on the application of the standards will be presented at the ASPiH Annual Conference 2017 taking place in Telford, UK from 6th to 8th November. This will inform any agreed revisions of the Standards Framework for 2018.

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