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Building our future digital workforce
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There is an urgent need to address current and future capability and capacity challenges and to build a future workforce with the right skills and shape.
Key to our work is establishing a workforce planning model for our health informatics workforce – those who work in data, digital, technology and knowledge - so we can understand both our current workforce, the demand for our future workforce and to develop a comprehensive plan to bridge the gaps.
To date we have developed a comprehensive analysis of the current workforce in the NHS (Stage 1) and have recently published our demand forecasting analysis (Stage 2) – a strategic workforce planning report – which has modelled the projected supply for the future digital workforce in two plausible scenarios.
In 2021, we will be undertaking Stage 3 of our workforce planning phased approach. By engaging with our partners and stakeholders in the wider system, we will attempt to fully understand and address the challenges around building capacity and capability in the health and care digital technology workforce. These challenges are focused around the supply factors in workforce planning, namely education and training pipelines and recruitment, retention and professional development (including reskilling and upskilling) of staff. If you are interested in participating in this stage of our work, please do get in touch with us to express your interest - digitalreadiness@hee.nhs.uk.
Alongside our workforce planning work we are working to develop attractive career pathways for emerging digital translator roles and those roles in high demand across all sectors such as data scientists and bioinformaticians.
We are establishing workable and sustainable models for the supply route of digital talent for graduates, school leavers, returners to work and staff looking for a career change. This is being progressed through a scalable model that pilots and proves in one region and is then adopted in other regions.
Additionally, we have launched an exciting Digital Fellowships opportunity – The Topol Digital Health Fellowships - to support innovation in digital for the clinical workforce and we are setting up cross-industry collaboration, mainly through the need to look at flexible resource models where resource is scarce.
Return to the main Digital Readiness page.
Projects, outputs and reports to date
HEE’s Building a Digitally Ready Workforce Programme commissioned a report with the aim of understanding how recruitment and retention (including progression) for health informatics can be improved by learning from the experiences of our existing workforce.
Key to our work is establishing a workforce planning model for our health informatics workforce – those who work in data, digital, technology and knowledge - so we can understand both our current workforce, the demand for our future workforce and to develop a comprehensive plan to bridge the gaps.
This Digital Readiness commissioned programme not only increases the number of individuals coming into the health care system with digital, data & technology skills but increases quality of graduates, while addressing the diversity ratios for females in Digital, Data & Technology, BAME, regional variations and career changers. The story so far...
- 33 graduates recruited into acute trusts, mental health trusts, community trusts, STPs and AHSNs
- Quality of graduates 6% Masters or PHD –pass / distinction, 29% Degree –1st honours, 45% Degree –2.1 honours
- Success rate 73% graduates selected for the scheme at assessment centre, 97% retention
- Inclusive recruitment 52% BAME, 37% female
- Three graduates successful in moving from Band 5 to 7 roles while on the scheme.
The scheme has successfully piloted in London in 2018 and evaluated well which enables it to be scaled and up nationally. During 2020, the programme is expanding into the North West, North East, Yorkshire & Humber and the South West.
To prospective and existing Graduate Digital, Data & Technology Scheme (DDaT) partner organisations, this is to advise you that despite the Coronavirus (COVID-19), we are still able to recruit talented graduates for your organisation.
The Topol Programme for Digital Fellowships in Healthcare aims to support NHS organisations to invest in clinical staff to develop specialist digital skills and to learn about leading digital transformation, while giving clinicians enough time outside of clinical commitments to lead digital health improvements and innovations.
The programme funded 18 Fellows in 2019 in cohort 1 and will be supporting up to 35 Fellows in 2021 as part of cohort 2.