NHS Long Term Workforce Plan

The founding of the NHS 75 years ago was a huge milestone in our national history. It was born out of hope, and for millions of people it represented the chance of a healthier future for them and their families. But as a new national service it faced real challenges. Chief among them was building a workforce capable of meeting the needs of a population suffering the effects of war, poverty and diseases as yet untamed by science, including tuberculosis. Fast forward to 2023: the NHS in England now has many times the number of staff, including doctors, nurses, therapists and scientists, and is therefore capable of delivering a far greater volume and breadth of care. But, at the same time, local services report vacancies totalling over 112,000. This is a reflection of how the needs of our population have grown and changed, thanks in large part to the role better care and advances in medicine have played in increasing life-expectancy by 13 years since 1948. That change will continue; the number of people aged over 85 is estimated to grow 55% by 2037, as part of a continuing trend of population growth which outstrips comparable countries. Inaction in the face of demographic change is forecast to leave us with a shortfall of between 260,000 and 360,000 staff by 2036/37. The lack of a sufficient workforce, in number and mix of skills, is already impacting patient experience, service capacity and productivity, and constrains our ability to transform the way we look after our patients. A growing shortfall would mean growing challenges and lost opportunities. If the NHS is to continue to be the health service the public overwhelmingly wants and are proud of – one which provides high quality care for patients, free at the point of need – it needs a robust and effective plan to ensure we have the right number of people, with the right skills and support in place to be able to deliver the kind of care people need The publication of our NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is therefore one of the most seminal moments in our 75-year history. This is the first time the government has asked the NHS to come up with a comprehensive workforce plan; a once-in-a-generation opportunity to put staffing on a sustainable footing and improve patient care. We have grasped that opportunity. Our Plan is ambitious, and it is bold, while being rooted in the reality experienced by patients and staff now, and it is rigorously aligned to the improvements in care that we aspire to make for patients. Even more crucially, it doesn’t just herald the start of the biggest recruitment drive in health service history, but also of an ongoing programme of strategic workforce planning – something which is unique amongst other health care systems with national scale.
5 | NHS Long Term Workforce Plan
In the pages that follow, we set out a strategic direction for the long term, as well as concrete and pragmatic action to be taken locally, regionally and nationally in the short to medium term to address current workforce challenges.

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