Briefing on rotational posts published

NHS Employers has published a new briefing document exploring how rotational posts can be an effective response to the challenges faced by employers in attracting and retaining staff.

It looks at the need to be innovative with workforce supply strategies to attract, develop and retain staff, and how this can be done through rotating substantive staff into different departments, organisations, or across a range of organisations.

The state of medical education and practice in the UK 2017

This report from the General Medical Council, which analyses data on the medical workforce across the UK, warns that the UK’s medical profession is at ‘a crunch point’ and will suffer increasing pressure over the next 20 years unless action is taken. It identifies a raft of challenges facing the medical profession today against a backdrop of an increasing and older population, and highlights four priorities for the UK’s governments and agencies responsible for medical training and workforce planning.

National health and care workforce strategy unveiled

A system-wide workforce strategy for the NHS and social care launches today for consultation: Facing the Facts, Shaping the Future, A Health and Care Workforce Strategy for England to 2027.

The content has been led and coordinated by Health Education England, but is published as a product of the whole national system including NHS England, NHS Improvement and Public Health England.

The draft strategy looks at the major workforce plans for the Five Year Forward View priorities: cancer; mental health; maternity; primary and community care; and urgent and emergency care.

Horizon scanning future health and care demand for workforce skills in England

This WHO briefing outlines the findings of a horizon scanning exercise, carried out by the Department of Health, which has informed workforce planning for the future health and care workforce and the skills needed to keep pace with changing health needs.

Rising pressure: the NHS workforce challenge

A new Health Foundation report highlighting that national policy and planning for the NHS workforce in England is not fit for purpose. The report also finds high staff turnover and instability across the NHS, and a drop in the number of trainee nurses.

Falling number of nurses in the NHS paints a worrying picture

Pressures on nursing staff and the potential impact on patients are again in the news just as Jeremy Hunt promises more nursing training places – for good reason as the latest NHS workforce statistics show.

The number of nurses employed in the NHS follows a stable seasonal pattern. Numbers rise in the autumn as newly qualified staff complete their training and then decline again until the following summer as some staff resign or retire, before beginning the cycle once more as another year’s newly qualified staff arrive.

Sustainable staffing in our emergency departments

NHS Improvement has developed a plan with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), NHS England and Health Education England to grow the workforce, reduce attrition in medical training and ensure emergency departments are attractive places to work.

Clinical radiology UK workforce census 2016 report

Key findings of the Clinical radiology UK workforce census 2016 report include;

• Nearly one-in-ten UK radiologist posts (8.5%) were vacant during 2016, nearly two-thirds of which (61%) were unfilled for a year or more
• The need for scans continues to grow. In England from 2013-16 the number of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans respectively rose by more than 30% - three times more than the rate of workforce growth. Technological advances mean that these scans are more complex than ever before and take longer to interpret
• The high proportion of retirements versus new consultant numbers means the UK’s radiologist workforce will expand by just 1% year-on-year
• Last year, only 3% of NHS imaging departments were able to report all their patient scans within normal working hours
• The NHS spent nearly £88 million in 2016 paying for backlogs of radiology examinations to be reported – the same amount could have paid for at least 1,028 full-time consultants

Exclusive: CQC plans rules on 'safe workload' for junior doctors

The Care Quality Commission has asked the medical royal colleges to draw up new “safe workload” standards for junior doctors, amid concerns they are still being given a workload that is unsafe, HSJ can reveal.

The CQC’s new chief inspector of hospitals, Ted Baker, also told HSJ in a wide ranging interview that:

• Staff were leaving the NHS because of culture problems including bullying
• The CQC had shifted trust chief executives behaviour from performance management to staff engagement
• Dedicated staff would get the NHS through winter because NHS services and capacity had not kept pace with demand

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Thousands of new roles to be created in mental health workforce plan

New measures will aim to transform mental health services by treating an extra one million patients by 2020 to 2021.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to launched a plan to expand the mental health workforce. The plan sets out measures to tackle the ‘historic imbalance’ in workforce capacity and fulfill ambitions to improve mental health services.

Sustainability and transformation plans: how series are the proposals? A critical review

This report from the London South Bank University, School of Health and Social Care argues that in order to deliver a better future for the NHS all 44 STPs would need to be given legislative powers and support necessary to achieve effective collaboration, plus some much-needed clarification on their role.

It also recommends that STP leaders need to plan ahead based on the reality of their current situation, identify changes that are evidence-based, develop workforce plans that match their ambitions, and focus on reducing demand before removing resources from the acute sector. Alongside the main report, 44 sub-reports are available, each critically reviewing the plans for each STP locality.

New workforce supply resource from NHS Employers

The resource has been set up to help organisations consider the political and social context they are employing staff in, and to develop a workforce strategy that is wide ranging, yet achievable. It addresses the challenges employers face in terms of planning for educating, recruiting, developing and retaining their staff.

Election briefing : a sustainable workforce - the lifeblood of the NHS and social care

This briefing focuses on the challenges facing the NHS and social care workforce in England, pointing to a combination of issues around recruitment, retention and morale. It highlights that the future workforce for the NHS and social care sector is at risk without urgent action from the incoming government to establish a sustainable and joined up workforce strategy.

• Briefing

New workforce supply resource from NHS Employers

NHS Employers has developed a range of new workforce supply web pages to support healthcare employers.

Employers in the NHS are keen to work together to address one of their biggest conundrums: how to plan a workforce that meets the changing demands of our population. NHS Employers are committed to helping you to develop a workforce which is big enough, and one which is skilled, adaptable, engaged and healthy.

The new web resource is set up to help you to consider the political and social context you’re working in, and to develop a workforce strategy that is wide ranging, yet achievable. It addresses the challenges employers face in terms of planning for, educating, recruiting, developing and retaining their staff.

Visit the new workforce supply web pages to access guidance on effective employment practice and education policy.

The future of the mental health workforce

Over the last few decades, mental health services have experienced great change in the way that they are designed and delivered. More recent national developments, including The Five Year Forward View and the report of the Mental Health Taskforce, emphasise the need to adopt new models of care, to meet rising demand, and to better integrate the way care is delivered to a population with complex physical and mental health needs. However, resources are limited and workforce development takes time to achieve.

This ongoing project explores, given this context, what the future mental health workforce should look like over the medium to long term (beyond the next five to ten years).

This first discussion paper presents data on the current picture of the workforce and emerging findings from the research to identify the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the mental health workforce.

National recruitment campaign proposed for adults’ social workers

A national recruitment campaign for social workers in adults’ services is needed to combat the shortages of experienced specialists, such as best interest assessors, according to Skills for Care chief executive, Sharon Allen.

Brexit And Health And Social Care - People And Process

This report from the House of Commons Health Committee explores the impact of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union on the provision of health and social care. The initial findings have highlighted the need for the Department of Health to plan comprehensively for any contingencies dependant on Brexit and the need for a pragmatic approach to workforce planning.

Nurse specialist in menopause

The Royal College of Nursing has published this document on the role of the nurse specialist in managing and supporting women with menopause.

2017-18 NHS Mandate and Mental Health

The Department of Health has published the NHS mandate for 2017-18. This sets out the government’s objectives for NHS England, as well as its budget.

It builds on the previous multi-year mandate, which came into effect on 1 April 2016 and set long term objectives and goals to 2020, this updated mandate focuses on the same 7 high-level objectives and sets out the main aims in each area for the financial year 2017 to 2018 to achieve the 2020 goals.

Reshaping the workforce to deliver the care patients need

This research report from the Nuffield Trust argues that there is an urgent need to rethink the nature of the NHS workforce if new care models are to succeed in meeting the needs of patients in the future.