Early Clinical Career Fellowships
Leadership Development for Nurses and Midwives in their Early Career
NHS Education for Scotland (NES) leads the Early Clinical Career Fellowships for Nurses and Midwives in NHS Scotland in collaboration with NHS Boards and Higher Education Institutions in Scotland.
The Early Clinical Career Fellowships (ECCF) are an exciting opportunity for nurses and midwives who are committed to developing their leadership potential in the early stages of their career. The fellowships are funded by Scottish Government Health Directorates. The fellowships support enthusiastic, motivated and talented nurses and midwives at an early stage in their career to develop personally, professionally and academically. The fellowships include release from practice to access funded part time masters level education, mentorship/clinical coaching, action learning sets and masterclasses.
There are three Fellowship schemes:-
ECCF 2012
Recruitment and selection for the Early Clinical Career Fellowships (ECCF 2012) is now OPEN.
ECCF 2011: this a revised model of fellowships which taking account of the evaluation and experience of the ECCF pilot. The recruitment cycle is complete and 20 fellows are offered a fellowship commencing in September 2011 and completing at the end of August 2014.
The ECCF Pilot has been in progress since December 2007 in NHSScotland. This is one of wide range of initiatives within Modernising Nursing Careers which aims to develop the nursing workforce of today and the future (SEHD 2006). ECCF was piloted in Scotland on behalf of the four UK countries.
Cohort 1: 41 fellows commenced in 2007/2008 and complete in 2010/2011;
Cohort 2: 58 fellows commenced in 2008/2009 and complete on 2011/2012;
All branches of nursing and midwifery were represented and 14 out of 16 NHS Boards had fellows in clinical practice.
Potential applicants
Thank you for your interest in the Early Clinical Career Fellowships. If you would like to receive information about future cohorts please email us on
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