In August 2021, HEE announced a tender exercise for the three-year Clinical Psychology Doctorate training programme.

This is vital for two reasons: to enable sufficient course capacity to continue our programme of expansion, and to ensure a consistent national approach.

After further discussions and engagement with potential bidders, and NHS England and Improvement colleagues, HEE will be extending the procurement process.

This means the procurement will now be for all provision from September 2023 entry, and will not include 2022 entry.

This decision to extend the process was made following feedback received at the market engagement events, to safeguard continuity of provision for September 2022.

This is essential to support the unprecedented expansion of the psychological professions workforce by approximately 10,500 posts by 2024 to meet commitments set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

The procurement exercise will continue to proceed at pace.

The launch of the specifications and the bid submission dates for the programme will now happen at a slightly later date, which we hope will allow more time for submissions and for mobilisation once contracts are awarded.

It will also provide bidders with additional lead time to prepare competitive high-quality bids.

HEE will widely communicate the new timeline of dates for both programmes once confirmed by the end of October 2021.

We would like to thank interested parties and potential bidders for their engagement and efforts in this tendering exercise so far.

We look forward to our continued work with all to support the delivery of excellent healthcare to the public across England.