Nurses asked to inform new NHS workforce plan

The government has launched a call for evidence for nursing staff and organisations to inform its upcoming workforce plan for the NHS in England.

The refreshed workforce plan, which was was originally due in the summer, is expected to be published this year.

Launched by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on Friday, the survey is looking for evidence to understand the professions, roles and skills that will be ‘critical’ to delivering the government’s three shifts: from hospital to community, sickness to prevention, and analogue to digital.

The DHSC is seeking examples of how the three shifts central to the government’s 10 Year Health Plan are already being implemented locally and how they are impacting the workforce. This will help to plan the workforce needed, and how healthcare staff will be most effectively deployed.

It said the plan would be the foundation of a new culture of respect where people have the conditions to thrive and are supported to deliver better quality care.

Delivering the three shifts

Respondents are being asked whether they have seen, or started to deliver, more community-based care away from hospitals, and whether they have introduced preventative care services.

Delivering future services

The consultation includes a section asking for evidence from workforce modelling, including around redesigning new community services and how this impacts workforce supply and demand.

Workforce productivity gains

Workforce productivity is also being scrutinised in the consultation, with questions examining how respondents took action to identify and address gaps in training (pre or post registration) that support the delivery of the government’s three shifts.

The DHSC also asks how the NHS should best deploy staff to increase productivity and ‘bring enjoyment’ back to work.

Culture and values

The government is asking for evidence and experiences of building a positive workforce culture in the NHS with strong leadership and quality of care.

Examples of approaches which show leaders ‘actively listen’ to staff values and that have ‘embedded strong core values’ across leadership, decision making and service delivery, are being sought.

Who should respond?

Nurses, midwives and health visitors who work in the NHS or health and care sector, and those who worked there in the past, can complete the survey, as an individual or on behalf of an organisation. Registered nurses are asked to select their role, including whether that is ‘adult nurse or general’, district or community nurse.

The consultation document asks how specific professions, roles and skills, could be impacted by the introduction of the three shifts and the wider policy ambitions of the workforce plan.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary and chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, stressed that growth and investment in the nursing workforce is ‘pivotal’ for the plan to succeed.

‘Any new plan for the workforce in England must not shy away from difficult choices and deliver for nursing and for patients.

‘Nursing has been transformed over the last 20 years, and the profession now leads patient care in a whole range of settings.

‘Despite this, we have an understaffed and undervalued workforce unable to provide the care patients deserve,’ she warned.

The survey is open until 7 November.

The new workforce plan was promised by the government last November, with publication originally expected this summer.

In July, the health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said the workforce plan would be finished ‘this autumn’.

The government has told Nursing in Practice that it is ‘committed’ to publishing the plan this year.

Responding to the government’s launch of its ‘neighbourhood health programmes’ in July, the RCN said the government must produce a ‘detailed and fully funded plan’ to develop the UK’s registered nurse workforce for new neighbourhood health services to be a success.

Also in July, the government said a ‘refreshed’ workforce plan for the NHS will include ‘fewer staff than projected by 2035’.