‘Our NHS People now and in the future’

As a people centred organisation which supports over 160,000 learners and trainees across health and social care, HEE welcomes the recommendations set out in this week’s Messenger Review.  I’d like to thank HEE’s Director of Education & Quality and Medical Director, Professor Wendy Reid, who was part of a core group of professionals who worked alongside Sir Gordon Messenger and Dame Linda Pollard, providing expertise to inform the final review.

This has made me think about all the work we are currently doing for our NHS People now and in the future. Everyone who works in health and social care is united in a common purpose to provide the very best care to patients and service users - this must absolutely extend to valuing all colleagues. 

We need NHS leaders and staff who model compassion, inclusion, and a focus on improvement, as they are key to creating cultures where diversity is valued, people feel they belong and are empowered to deliver great care and patient experience.

With the current and future NHS workforce in mind, considerable progress continues to be made, putting in place the essential ‘building blocks’ to build the collaborative work of HEE and NHS England and Improvement, hand in hand with other stakeholders.

Together, we launched the NHS People Plan, which set out clearly the requirements around culture, behaviours, and values to support us to make the NHS the best place to work, and this is an important part of the jigsaw to ensure we look after all our NHS People who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic.

The second ‘building block’ is Framework 15, which looks at the long-term strategic trends for the health and social care workforce and will be published before the summer. It focuses on the bigger strategic thinking about the future of work, the drivers for workforce change, and what that’s going to mean for the NHS and future shape of care.

Meanwhile, the refresh of the NHS Long Term Plan over the coming months will also focus on service priorities for the NHS and this will importantly feed into what are the workforce numbers needed to deliver NHS services.

The third part of the jigsaw is the NHS Workforce Plan, which will build on the Framework 15 and the NHS Long Term Plan refresh to respond to the ‘What next?’ question, as we collectively focus on ensuring the NHS has the workforce it needs over the short, medium, and long term. This plan is about much more than simply looking at workforce numbers. Whilst these will help guide training and education funding and placement allocations required in the coming years, the Workforce Plan will also have a fundamental part to play in recognising that the roles of tomorrow won’t be the same as today and will require different skills, investment in digital and technology, which will allow our NHS People to work differently over the next five, ten and 15 years. 

The People Plan, Framework 15, Long Term Plan, Messenger Review and Workforce Plan collectively form important parts of the blueprint of our NHS and social care as we move forward together – collectively, we have real potential to enhance people’s careers, working lives and to positively impact patient outcomes. 

I hope to see many of you next week in Liverpool at NHS ConfedExpo 2022. Please do join us to find out more about HEE’s work.

Best Wishes

Navina

Dr Navina Evans

Chief Executive 

Health Education England