HEIW sets out the foundations for safe AI use across NHS Wales education
Health Education and Improvement Wales has completed an all-Wales review of AI literacy, skills and needs across the primary and community care workforce. The findings are now informing its planning, future priorities and costed options. HEIW has also developed organisational guardrails for the safe, ethical and proportionate use of generative AI in education, training and assessment.
Key points
- A first system-wide AI literacy module has launched on its Y Ty Dysgu learning platform, giving NHS Wales staff a common foundation in how AI works.
- The development on the record is the NHS Wales skills plan, reported by HEIW.
What's happening
HEIW has also developed organisational guardrails for the safe, ethical and proportionate use of generative AI in education, training and assessment. A first system-wide AI literacy module has launched on its Y Ty Dysgu learning platform, giving NHS Wales staff a common foundation in how AI works.
The organisation said: "the people are already using AI, so the sector has to move to support and equip them safely." The work is being aligned with the Welsh Government Office for AI and the Centre for Digital Public Services.
No funding figure, timescale or headcount has been published alongside the announcement, so the scale of the work cannot yet be measured from the reporting itself.
The account is carried by HEIW, which has not named the delivery partners, suppliers or funders involved.
In their words
“We may use third party tools such as Google Analytics and similar to help us anonymously measure how you use our websites. This allows us to make improvements based on our users\' needs.”
Why it matters in Wales
For Wales the substance of the NHS Wales skills plan sits in training and progression, where training in Wales fills easily at entry level, so the real measure is how many learners reach paid advanced data and machine learning work afterwards.
No figure has been disclosed alongside the NHS Wales skills plan, so the measure that counts in Wales is recorded activity: training and progression showing up in hiring, contracts or published outcomes rather than in further announcements.
On skills the constraint in Wales is rarely appetite but progression. Introductory sessions fill, while advanced data and machine learning roles stay hard to fill, which is the standard the NHS Wales skills plan has to be measured against.
What we're watching
- •Delivery updates published by NHS Wales on the work described.
- •What Health Education and Improvement Wales confirms about its own role and contribution.
- •Measured training and progression outcomes reported in Wales.
- •Follow up reporting from HEIW that adds figures, named partners or dates.
Original source: HEIW · 4 February 2026