Involve us in new workforce plan, BMA and RCGP urge health secretary
The BMA and RCGP are among more than 70 health organisations who have urged the health secretary to involve them in developing a new 10-year workforce plan.
The organisations signed a letter sent yesterday to Wes Streeting which called for a ‘robust stakeholder engagement process’ on the plan which is due to be published this year.
The letter said the signatory organisations ‘stand ready to offer our considerable shared expertise’, adding that ‘funding will need to be attached to any priorities that the plan sets’.
Among the 74 signatories were the medical royal colleges, NHS Confederation, the King’s Fund, and other charities and unions.
The letter said that ‘it is crucial to get a robust stakeholder engagement process underway, and allow the time to produce a thorough, credible workforce plan with stakeholder buy-in and an accompanying implementation plan’.
It cited a National Audit Office analysis of the previous workforce plan which recommended ‘assumptions should be generated in transparent and systematic consultation with external stakeholders’.
It also referenced the 2024 NHS staff survey which found only a third of staff themselves believed there were enough staff in their organisation to do their job properly.
The letter argued ‘a well resourced NHS workforce will be essential to delivering the three shifts’ proposed in the recently-published 10 year health plan.
It thanked Labour for backing calls in 2022 from more than 100 organisations to amend the Health and Care Act to mandate regular, independent projections of NHS staff numbers required to meet demand.
‘We welcomed Labour’s valuable support and backing for that call, and your manifesto commitment to publish regular, independent workforce planning across health and social care.
‘We stand ready to support you in delivering these commitments’, it said.
A DHSC spokesperson told Pulse: ‘We welcome the fact so many important stakeholders are keen to support our 10 Year Workforce Plan.
‘We all want the same thing – an NHS workforce which has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients when they need it.
‘We are committed to engaging with partners to draw on their evidence and expertise.’
The Government has previously promised a ‘refreshed’ plan to replace the 2023 Long Term Workforce Plan, whose aim to increase NHS headcount 60% by 2037 it rejected as unworkable.
The 2023 plan was also criticised for its projected 4% increase of fully-qualified GPs by 2036/37, compared to a 49% increase in hospital consultants.
The new plan will result in ‘fewer staff than projected’ but they will be ‘more motivated’ and receive ‘better training’, the Government said in the 10 year health plan.
The Government has said it will end the NHS’ ‘dependency on international recruitment’ by capping new overseas recruit numbers at 10% by 2035 to create a more ‘sustainable’ workforce.
It said it would ‘neither be possible nor ethical’ to maintain similar levels of international recruitment, and a more sustainable plan ‘will involve NHS employers reaching into their communities – rather than looking to international recruitment agencies’.
Workforce Plan letter main text
Dear Secretary of State,
Re: 10 Year Workforce Plan for the NHS
We are writing to you as a coalition of 74 health and care organisations to open productive and accessible engagement between the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, and our organisations on the development of the 10 Year Workforce Plan for the NHS.
As you will remember, our organisations – which represent a large part of the health and care workforce and the patients they treat – first came together during the passage of the Health and Care Act 2022, to call for regular, independent assessments of the staff needed to keep pace with patient demand. We welcomed Labour’s valuable support and backing for that call, and your manifesto commitment to publish regular, independent workforce planning across health and social care. We stand ready to support you in delivering these commitments.
We welcome that the government has committed to publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan. A well-resourced NHS workforce will be essential to delivering the three shifts in the 10 Year Health Plan for England. Only a third of staff believe there are enough staff in their organisation to do their job properly and we know that patients are waiting too long to get the care they need. Patients and staff must be confident that the proposals in the 10 Year Workforce Plan will lead to a more sustainably staffed health service.
As such, it is crucial to get a robust stakeholder engagement process underway, and allow the time to produce a thorough, credible workforce plan with stakeholder buy-in and an accompanying implementation plan. In its analysis of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s modelling last year, The National Audit Office recommended that “assumptions should be generated in transparent and systematic consultation with external stakeholders” and that more should be made of this opportunity for future workforce modelling. We ask you to ensure that this recommendation is met for the 10 Year Workforce Plan, and we stand ready to offer our considerable shared expertise.
The success of the plan will hinge on this learning from the previous Long Term Workforce Plan. The plan is also a key opportunity to deliver improvements for existing staff to improve retention and morale, and set out a pathway towards an accompanying, much needed, workforce plan for social care.
We remain supportive of a regularly refreshed, credible national workforce plan for the NHS with independently verified modelling. We are clear that funding will need to be attached to any priorities that the plan sets.
We would welcome the opportunity to support you to deliver this, and request that your department sets out, in its response to this letter, plans and timelines for engagement.
Source: RCP
