20 key takeaways from Strategic Workforce Planning session
Here are the main points shared in our discussion during the NHS LPP Annual Members' Conference 2021. They are grouped under headings showing the main questions we asked
What will the NHS workforce look like in the future, and how different is it to current reality?
1. The pandemic has accelerated new ways of working digitally and we need to consider:
- How best to deliver services in the future
- Within the financial envelope available
- Staff needed to deliver these services
- Be mindful that new roles might need to be created.
2. Staff need to be technologically competent:
- Workforce leaders need to ensure they’re a key stakeholder when transitioning to more digital processes, to ensure systems are fit for purpose.
- Creating and implementing new training and development plans are vital to accelerate digital capability and ensure staff are prepared and can adapt to future challenges.
3. Our vision is to achieve a workforce where concerns about inequalities no longer exist and pro-active planning is required sooner rather than later
4. Budget is a key factor and may be a challenge. How much of policy and government influence is being driven by the financial envelope rather than reviewing current workforce needs and market dynamics?
5. Younger people are much more interested and concerned with climate change now, and are influenced into choosing employers that have good sustainability practices. We need to maximise external communications to raise awareness of NHS efforts to become greener.
6. Staff want to have a sense of belonging in their workplace; investing in nurturing that can benefit the trust long-term.
What components need to be included in the NHS Operation Plan to help workforce practitioners prepare for the future?
7. Define and make provision for the skills and tools (equipment) needed to deliver services in the future
8. Introduce risk management and stress testing plans for modern day crises. We need to learn from the 2017 cyberattacks and the COVID pandemic.
9. How to bolster staff health and wellbeing using risk assessments, lessons learnt exercises and improving ways of working to offer better work-life balance.
10. Hire to Retire goals:
- Young people are looking at a different career pattern these days and don’t want to just stay in the NHS as a longer term career plan.
- Evaluating why they don’t stay and devising measures to reduce turnover can help trusts retain the workforce.
- Providing training and development opportunities also remains crucial for retention.
11. Approach – call for evidence nationally and internally, new framework 15 will be produced, those longer term changes will be considered.
12. Flexible workers are key in supporting the NHS and competing priorities in the NHS and conflicting views on staffing solutions remain:
- Temporary/agency’ workers are still seen as a negative within the NHS and this impacts on how staff are treated within Trusts.
- Agency workers choose agency working because the NHS is still not ready to accommodate flexible requirements that the agency provider can offer.
- Collaborative banks are in the process of being pulled together within ICS’ however we also need to ensure that staff that continue as agency workers are supported.
What could we do once for London as part of this preparation?
13. When recruiting to senior leadership or Board positions, the appointments should strive to reflect the population it serves, and even make it a criteria for success.
14. Capitalise on the successes gained from the CapitalNurse approach to managing recruitment for London in a structured and standard way. Embed a similar approach for recruitment and retention in London trusts.
15. Staff wellbeing is an important element of retention and should be standardised across London Trusts to minimise discrepancies for employees moving from Trust to Trust
What’s your role in delivering workforce in the future and what support do you need to do that?
16. NHS LPP play an integral role in supporting NHS trusts by using our expertise and national network of contacts. We highlight innovative methods in NHS workforce management and to connecting workforce practitioners within and outside of the NHS to share different approaches and best practices to common problems.
17. We should share the success stores from other sectors and be open to learning from them specially on how different organisations reacted to the pandemic and the different approaches and thinking they adopted.
18. Necessity is the mother of invention and hybrid working emerged as a direct result of the pandemic. maintain elements of remote consultation where appropriate.
19. The new ways of working can also impact positively by improving trust sustainability efforts i.e. reducing journeys to hospital We should champion the positives and embed them in future patient care delivery e.g.lowering transport emissions and therefore improving respiratory problems to Londoners.
20. Education – supporting education / development of the future pipeline of talent in under representative parts of the community and help improve inequalities and support a future workforce that is representative of the community they serve.
