Phil Carver, HEE Regional Director and NHS England and Improvement Director of Workforce speaks about his new combined role

To coincide with the launch on the new east of England workforce stakeholder bulletin, Phil Carver, HEE Regional Director and NHS England and Improvement Director of Workforce, speaks about his new combined role, the importance of reaching our stakeholders and the benefits of working with NHS colleagues across the region.

What are your reflections of your first few months as both HEE’s regional director and NHSE/I’s workforce director?

I’m enjoying the opportunity to bring together workforce programmes from HEE and NHSE/I across the east of England

This is an exciting time as integrated care boards (ICBs) with significantly strengthened roles in workforce and education at system level are expected to be established in July 2022.

During the last two quarters of 2021/22 our activity has focused on securing workforce leadership for each of our systems. Regional workforce leadership is critical, and as an interim joint role this will be used as a proof of concept and will provide time to understand how the new landscape will unfold.

What has struck me the most so far is the dedication of colleagues in both organisations. I have no doubt that we will continue to build closer, positive working relationships across HEE and NHSE/I as we move towards the establishment of the new organisation

What positive changes have taken place and what benefits have you seen in HEE and NHSE/I working more closely?

We already have a more integrated approach at regional level, with senior workforce leaders in both organisations meeting weekly. This approach has expanded the plan for improved workforce supply in the short, medium and longer term. It also ensures that staff safety, health and wellbeing, and inclusion are embedded, and that retention efforts are maximised across health and social care.

Also, education providers, training and education are focussed on supporting the development and deployment of skills flexibly, and to facilitate and support new ways of working, role and service design.

Can you tell us what the next six months will look like for you and your teams in the EoE? What are the priorities and key deliverables?

The next six months will continue to focus on the Covid recovery programme, which continues to highlight the need to integrate service and training recovery. As pressures increase, this joint team will enable the embedding of training recovery into service delivery, which is crucial in order to supply the workforce needed to restore services and reduce waiting lists.

Why have we launched a new stakeholder workforce bulletin?

The stakeholder bulletin we’ve been sending out has included important information from our national programmes at HEE. We know there’s a lot happening at HEE and NHSE/I in the east of England that it would be useful for you to know about, so we’re aiming to combine all of this information into one workforce bulletin for the region over the next few months.

This should mean you have all of the relevant workforce information from one channel, in one place and we can avoid duplicating messages to you.

What is the benefit of increased engagement and collaboration for patients and staff?

Our purpose as part of the NHS, is to work with partners to plan, recruit, educate and train the health workforce.

The closer we work with you and your staff, the more understanding we’ll have of your needs and how we can support them. That will hopefully lead to us all being better equipped to help improve the quality of life and health and care services for the people of the east of England.

What key things would you like stakeholders to know or do?

The closer the regional partnership, the fewer barriers we will have in creating a single support offer to integrated care systems (ICSs). Close working has already brought benefits and a joint team has further areas for development, removing duplication and accelerating delivery, bringing expertise and resource together in a single offer to stakeholders.

I’m looking forward to the challenges and improvements the next six to 12 months will bring and will update you all on progress in future bulletins.