Workforce Transformation

What is Workforce Transformation? 

By workforce, we mean the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, healthcare scientists, allied health professions, psychological therapies, porters, administrators and the many other people that provide care and support to those who access healthcare services.  

Workforce transformation is a process, driven by improving the way we recruit, retain, deploy, develop and continue to support the healthcare workforce, to meet the growing and changing needs of local populations – ensuring high quality care for the patients of today and the future.

Why now?

The world is changing at a faster pace than ever before.  An aging and diverse population, living for longer with greater more complex healthcare needs, alongside technological advances, require new models of care which in turn, mean we need to do things differently, more creatively and more effectively.  

COVID19 in particular, has shown us how imperative it is to have a skilled, flexible  and resilient workforce, able to adapt quickly in times of crisis to deliver the best healthcare possible in a way that works for all. 

How can HEE help? 

As the workforce and education Arm’s length body, HEE is the first point of contact for care Providers seeking expert support, ​to build and develop a workforce which drives innovation and improvements for the benefit of patients and populations.  We have specialist teams across the country devoted to supporting organisations and systems to address their workforce challenges. 

Nationally, we have developed the HEE Star, a simple but effective model to support workforce transformation, enabling those responsible for delivering healthcare services, to explore workforce challenges in more detail and develop bespoke action plans for improvement.

HEE has also developed a national approach to accelerate the spread and adoption of innovation and good practice, to facilitate the further and faster pace of sustainable change.

Patrick Mitchell, Director of Innovation and Transformation:

"The NHS remains the envy of the world in terms of the quality it provides to patients, free at the point of care. This enviable position is largely due to the loyalty, hard work and passion of its 1.3 million strong workforce.

The challenges facing this same workforce are well documented. To meet these challenges, our workforce now needs to transform like never before - this means attracting and securing a vibrant future supply, upskilling our existing staff, creating and embracing new roles, mobilising innovation and new ways of working and ensuring compassionate and inclusive leadership.

The HEE Star is our delivery model for workforce transformation – supporting provider systems to address the workforce challenges they face today, plan their needs for tomorrow and continue to put patients at the heart of the NHS."

Where can I find out more or get involved?

If you are interested in finding out more about how HEE is supporting Workforce Transformation and how the HEE Star can help you, please contact transformation@hee.nhs.uk