Workforce
The NHS’s greatest strength is its people, and as demand for healthcare continues to grow, it is essential that NHS staff get the support they need to do their jobs effectively.
Through better recruitment and retention, the NHS Long Term Plan will ensure there are enough people working in the NHS to support patients, and that they get the support they need to continue delivering the best possible care.
It will also strengthen the quality of NHS leadership, while improving the working environment for frontline staff – from support to manage their own health and wellbeing, to investing in the digital technology that can help them do their jobs more easily.
What we will do
- Make the NHS a great place to work by prioritising staff support and wellbeing
- Strengthen and support leadership at all levels
- Make sure that we have enough people with the right skills to help care for patients now and in the future
- Enhance retention drives for nurses to continue their NHS careers
- Empower our workforce to use new technology.
Interim NHS People Plan
Delivering the vision of the NHS Long Term Plan will require healthcare that is more personalised and patient centred, more focused on prevention, and more likely to be delivered in the community, out of hospital. It will be enabled by technology and delivered by professionals from different organisations collaborating and co-ordinating their care for each of us.
Our Interim NHS People plan, developed collaboratively with national leaders and partners, sets a vision for how people working in the NHS will be supported to deliver that care and identifies the actions we will take to help them.
Some actions will make a rapid difference in 2019/20, and some will lay the groundwork to grow the NHS’s workforce, support and develop NHS leaders and make our NHS the best place to work.
This is the beginning of a new way of working. Our Chief People Officer Prerana Issar will shortly launch a partnership exercise — for leaders and people across the health and care system — to set the conditions for an improved working culture throughout the NHS.
Alongside the Interim NHS People Plan we are publishing short summaries of specific action we are taking in relation to developing the future medical, AHP, pharmacy, healthcare science and dental workforces, alongside the action set out in this Interim NHS People Plan to improve multiprofessional working across all areas of the healthcare workforce:
• Interim NHS People Plan: the future allied health professions and psychological professions workforce
• Interim NHS People Plan: the future dental workforce
• Interim NHS People Plan: the future healthcare science workforce
• Interim NHS People Plan: the future medical workforce
• Interim NHS People Plan: the future pharmacy workforce
Find out more
Download the Interim NHS People Plan.
Explore our collection of case studies and resources to find out about the significant amount of good practice already underway across the country.
Putting it into practice: Southend
Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has created the successful ‘Stay @ Southend’ retention campaign to keep more nurses in their job.
One of the campaign aims was to improve first impressions during the first 90 days of a new nurse’s employment. Managers were given practical support to be positive with their teams and respond to their needs. Existing policies on flexible working and retire-and-return were reinvigorated.
Managers now have a better understanding of their staff’s aspirations and concerns, and are able to be more responsive to their needs. As a result, turnover rates have fallen.
Find out more
See what the NHS Long Term Plan has to say about workforce.
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