Health Education England (HEE) exists for one reason only: to support the delivery of excellent healthcare and health improvement to the patients and public of England by ensuring that the workforce of today and tomorrow has the right numbers, skills, values and behaviours, at the right time and in the right place.

HEE is responsible for not only attracting the right people to the National Health Service (NHS), but also for developing people already working within healthcare, to make sure they have the education and training, and the flexibility, to deliver high quality care to patients now and in the future.

The work of HEE covers a wide range of professions, programmes and activity, from planning and commissioning, to recruiting and developing healthcare staff in a range of healthcare and community settings. More than 160,000 students are at this moment studying to be part of the future healthcare workforce in England. That includes doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, physiotherapists and many more roles – in fact there are over 300 different types of jobs performed by more than one million people in the NHS.

In addition to its responsibilities for the education and training of the healthcare workforce, HEE’s contribution to embedding research and innovation within the NHS is also crucial. HEE’s first contributions to FutureLearn will come from HEE’s Genomics Education Programme. This programme aims to ensure that NHS staff have the knowledge, skills and experience to ensure that the health service remains a world leader in genomic and precision medicine.