Workforce Planning and Development

Across England, each region, including our own, has its own, individual challenges around both shortages in staff and upskilling their local workforce – the nurses, pharmacists, doctors, social care & care home practitioners, those within the 100’s of our voluntary, charitable and social enterprises, as well as the many others that provide care and support to those who access our services. No healthcare system is exactly the same, and these challenges often require tailored and multi-professional solutions where we need to come together and collaboratively set new skills, new roles, new ways of working and new models of care delivery. With so many competing priorities, and the ever-present need to deliver value for money within public services, finding these solutions can be incredibly complex.  This is where workforce planning & development is a cornerstone. As an ICS, we have committed large scale investment to increase the capability and capacity to accomplish this, with a new Strategic Workforce Planning & Development Framework that includes our health & care organisations working ‘better together’ in adopting consistent approaches, priorities and plans. How we make a difference, will be to not only focus on the immediate staff shortages, but to look forward by investing in our workforce pipeline for the future. This includes increased apprenticeships (for existing staff and our next generations of employees) and widening participation by working with schools, colleges and universities in providing wider opportunities for work placement experiences and career development options into the vast suite of health and care job roles. The choices are vast!