ASPiH Special Update: National recognition marks an important milestone for simulation
This month, ASPiH was pleased to contribute to the launch of the Trained for Tomorrow report at Westminster, UK, published by Policy Connect following the Higher Education Commission Inquiry into the future NHS workforce.
The event brought together leaders from healthcare, higher education, professional regulation, and policy to consider how we prepare the future workforce to meet increasingly complex health and care needs.
What struck us most was not simply that simulation featured prominently throughout the discussion, but that the conversation itself has changed.
We are no longer asking whether simulation has a place within healthcare education and practice.
We are now asking how we embed high-quality simulation as an integral part of workforce development, patient safety and system transformation. That shift represents an important moment for our community.
For many years, our community has worked to establish simulation as a credible, evidence-informed component of healthcare education and practice. This report reflects the growing recognition of that collective effort.
One recommendation within the report is particularly significant. The report recommends that simulation hours contributing towards proficiency and
practice learning requirements should be delivered by providers meeting defined quality standards aligned with those developed by ASPiH.
“Simulation hours that count toward proficiency and practice learning requirements should only be delivered by providers meeting defined
quality standards, aligned with those set out by the Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH)”
This recognition is important not because it belongs to ASPiH, but because it reflects many years of work by our members, volunteers and the wider simulation community (nationally and globally) to establish quality, consistency and credibility across the profession.
It demonstrates that high-quality simulation is increasingly recognised as essential infrastructure for healthcare education, workforce development and safer systems of care, rather than an optional enhancement.
Publication of a report is not the destination. It is the beginning.
Implementation will require collaboration across education and healthcare providers, regulators, professional bodies, policymakers, industry partners, educators, practitioners, simulation technicians, researchers and people with lived experience.
No single organisation, profession or sector can achieve this alone.
This next phase will require leadership, innovation and collaboration across the entire simulation ecosystem.
ASPiH is committed to playing its part by:
“Regulators should formally recognise simulation-based learning in each profession in turn, beginning with those where the evidence base is strongest and extending recognition across all healthcare professions as the evidence develops.”
The conversations throughout the day reinforced something many of us have believed for some time.
Simulation is no longer solely about education.
It is becoming recognised as an essential capability for preparing, supporting and transforming the health and care workforce.
This is an exciting opportunity – not simply for ASPiH, but for every member of our community.
Thank you to Policy Connect, the Higher Education Commission and everyone who contributed to this important work.
The recommendations provide a strong platform for the next phase of implementation, and ASPiH looks forward to working with colleagues across the system to help realise that ambition.
Over the coming months, ASPiH will continue working with members, partners and policymakers to help turn these recommendations into meaningful action. We look forward to shaping that next chapter together.
Read the full report here: https://policyconnect.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Trained-for-Tomorrow.pdf
Professor Sharon Marie Weldon
President, ASPiH
