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All-Wales Urgent Primary Care Practitioner Competency Framework Evaluation

 

The All-Wales Urgent Primary Care Practitioner Competency Framework was created to improve multi-disciplinary working, in line with the Strategic Workforce Plan for Primary Care (2025-2030). The framework's primary objective is to strengthen Urgent Primary Care (UPC) services by supporting the learning and development of the UPC workforce. It is designed to enhance professional learning, build clinical skills, and ensure competency standards are consistent across multi-disciplinary teams, especially in urgent primary care centres and out-of-hours services. The framework offers individuals a structured way to collect work-based evidence to demonstrate their level of practice and progress along defined career paths.

The first pilot cohort of practitioners for the competency framework began their programme in early 2025. The entire project is funded by Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW).

CEDAR’s role 

CEDAR was commissioned by HEIW to undertake a service evaluation of the 12-month pilot phase of the Urgent Primary Care Practitioner Competency Framework. The evaluation assessed the framework's effectiveness, identified real-world barriers to completion, and explored additional benefits for urgent care services. The findings will help inform the future national All-Wales implementation of the framework.

The key objectives of the evaluation were to:

  • Explore the perspectives, expectations, and experiences of practitioners, and assessors involved in the Urgent Care Practitioner framework course.

  • Assess the effectiveness of the framework in enhancing the skills, confidence, and professional development of UCP clinicians.

  • Recognise potential barriers to implementation or completion of the course, to help facilitate widespread adoption.

  • Identify any additional, unintended benefits or drawbacks that may further impact the Urgent Primary Care workforce and services.

  • Suggest recommendations for improvements to the framework to support an All Wales rollout.

To meet these objectives, CEDAR collected primary data from two groups: 17 Urgent Primary Care Practitioners and 7 supervisors/assessors enrolled in the pilot. Data collection involved a separate online survey for each group, administered at baseline (upon enrolment) and at a 12-month follow-up. Participants from both groups also took part in 20 in-depth, semi-structured online interviews to share their experiences in more detail.

Report

Read the full report here.

A Welsh version of the report will be available in July 2026.

For any questions relating to CEDAR's evaluation, contact the CEDAR project lead, Senior Researcher, Michael Beddard (michael.beddard@wales.nhs.uk)