The NHS is recruiting a supplier to deliver “compassionate conversations training” to front facing NHS staff and primary care staff in a publicly funded contract worth a mind-boggling £3 million. The contract tender, which was published yesterday and closes on 5 November 2021, says the aim is to equip NHS staff with “the skills they need to handle challenging situations with compassion whilst ensuring they feel able to look after their own wellbeing if needed”. Guido assumed that doctors were already taught about the importance of a good bedside manner…

It’s almost ludicrous to think that this weekend Javid promised a forensic review of the NHS’s management and leadership whilst the NHS continues to recklessly splash cash on diversity roles. Just six months ago Guido revealed that the NHS was hiring eight more ‘diversity, equality and inclusion managers’ across the country, with salaries up to as much as a whopping £62,000. If Javid is going to cut down those waiting list times he needs to focus taxpayers’ money on the clinical front line, not nonsense make-work contracts and diversity roles…

UPDATE: An NHS spokesperson claims: “Actually, this training is to help support frontline staff when they face inappropriate, abusive and sometimes even violent behaviour – which unfortunately they are increasingly experiencing while they are trying to care for patients.” According to the contract tender this is just a part of the course.

The spokesperson goes on to argue that the value of this contract is not £3 million for 14,000 people. The contract is £1.5 million for training to be delivered to 21,000 staff before the end of March 2022, with a potential for a further £1.5 million for training for another 21,000 staff during 2022 – if the contract is extended. We have corrected the text and headline (“Up To”) so as to reflect that.