Ambitious NHS Workforce Plan offers hope to staff working in the NHS
Ahead of the imminently expected publication of the NHS’s Long Term Workforce Plan, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:
“This will be a day that many NHS leaders could be forgiven for thinking would never come, but it offers hope to the almost 1.4 million staff working in the NHS who have been holding out for years for such a comprehensive plan to boost recruitment and retention. We must now all work together to ensure it is effectively delivered.
“The government should be commended for backing NHS England to produce what we expect to be a thorough, bold and ambitious plan – one that will have taken on board much of what the wider NHS has been asking for. We see this as the crucial first leg in a three-legged stool that the NHS needs to revive and thrive – the other two being an equivalent plan for the social care workforce, alongside extra investment in capital and technology. Both will also be required to achieve the plan’s laudable ambitions, particularly when it comes to the level of productivity increases that are envisaged. We now look forward to seeing the full details to understand the full implications.
“There should be much to welcome in the plan, not least the planned doubling of medical school places – this is something NHS leaders have long been calling for. While this will take years to bear fruit, it is essential to help future proof the NHS.
“The ambitions around apprenticeships and degree apprenticeships are also critical if we are to increase the size of the NHS workforce and attract more people into the service from diverse backgrounds. We believe apprenticeships will provide a particular boost in areas where it’s harder to recruit staff and reduce barriers to entry for more disadvantaged people looking to start a career in medicine.
“Over the years we have seen a lack of investment in NHS staffing roles outside of hospitals. This plan aims to correct that with ambitious growth targets for recruiting more staff into mental health, community care and primary care roles. This reflects the need to catch up from what has been a historically low starting point in these areas, especially in mental health nursing.
“We are also pleased that there will be a renewed focus on retention as this is, if anything, more important than attracting new staff into the NHS. Leaders will hope that the plan provides reassurance to staff that help is on the way to spread the workload, improve working conditions for them and improve care for patients. The mix of measures the plan proposes around flexible working, culture and training time will also help.
“While international recruitment will always have an important role to play, the measures outlined in the plan should, over time, help to reduce the NHS’s reliance on overseas staff and on the use of agency staff. We absolutely need to ensure our international colleagues are retained to develop and achieve their potential, but longer term the development of the domestic staff pipeline will help ensure that we are not depriving other countries of staff for the sake of our own health service.
“Better use of technology will be an important way in which we achieve the ambitions of this plan and NHS leaders and their teams will continue to innovate and deliver value for money and high-quality care. But greater use of technology should not be seen as an alternative to adequate, safe levels of staffing – levels which must keep pace with demand and grow as our population ages. We would therefore like to see the Digital Data and Technology Workforce Plan published soon.
“While this plan has been long in the making, we know it is the first downpayment on a longer-term change in how we recruit and retain our staff. We therefore welcome commitments from NHS England to regularly review and update the plan. We would like to see this happen every two to three years, at minimum. This will help ensure we are on track or show us where efforts, and resources, should be refocused if necessary.
“Based on everything we have seen and heard about the plan so far we think it will go a long way to addressing the workforce challenges we are facing. But we look forward to seeing the more detailed modelling, planning assumptions and productivity increases envisaged in it to understand the full implications.”
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