Delivering Key Skills for Clinical Coders

Training

The national NHS Classifications Service is responsible for the development, maintenance and implementation of the clinical classifications (OPCS-4 and ICD-10) and associated standards in use in the NHS.

The launch of the Clinical Coding Academy Project is natural progression for clinical coding training for the NHS and an exciting opportunity where local training centres collaborate with us at the centre to meet the specific needs of local training delivery. This is part of our long-term objective to address the needs of NHS clinical coders and delivering cost effective training.

• Clinical Coding Academies Project NHS training centres accredited by the NHS Classifications Service. These training centres support the continuous professional development of the NHS clinical coder delivering training by approved clinical coding trainers, using our national suite of training materials as well as Academy developed courses.
• Clinical coding trainer and auditor programme are courses in the core skills needed to become a clinical coding trainer or auditor only delivered by NHS Classifications Service to maintain and develop required national standards.
• Accreditation for clinical coding in the National Clinical Coding Qualification NCCQ (UK).
• Approved clinical coding trainers to support the continuous professional development of all NHS clinical coders (both novice and experienced coder) using our suite of approved national training materials;
• e-learning on the basic four-step coding process and anatomy and physiology (N3 connections only).

The rationale

The central training service was established to support Recommendation 151 from the Kennedy Report. The focus of the report was on training and professional qualifications – namely, developing competent staff who are trained in clinical coding and supported in their work.

This ensures all clinical coding training is consistently delivered across the NHS using the same source materials so giving confidence that the quality of coded clinical data is also consistent. The benefits of the central service are:

• a close alliance with national clinical coding standards development;
• the creation of products and training materials which are compliant with national guidelines;
• a better quality and standardised provision of training and auditing;
• one point-of-contact for support, training and auditing;
• a centralisation of development and production costs.

Other resources we offer to ensure data quality standards include:

• the national clinical coding audit framework and auditor code of practice: supporting local NHS organisations in improving data quality, and providing Payment by Results assurance.
• national clinical classifications standards.