Priority 1: The educator workforce must be a key consideration in integrated workforce and service planning

Integrated planning seeks to set out how workforce planning can best be integrated with population health, service and financial planning. Currently, planning takes place at different levels (eg provider, place, Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), regional, national); over different timeframes (eg in year, annual, multi-year) and through different lenses (eg place, programme, pathway, profession). The ‘levers’ for these planning units have historically been held by different and disparate parties involved in strategy, planning, delivery, improvement and oversight. Triangulating workforce demand and supply in and across these units - ‘all levers, all levels’ - to make decisions about what interventions will be carried out to meet supply requirements is necessary to ensure identification of a comprehensive set of solutions as possible.

It is also recognised that the role of workplace learning is key to NHS delivery and workforce priorities.

ICSs in collaboration with regional teams of the new NHS England have a unique opportunity to align and coordinate planning, evidence and resource for delivery of service activity and development, workforce and finance to meet population need across these levers. This should cover all roles from support workers and upskilling, to student placements, postgraduate trainees, staff development and advanced practice roles. Importantly, the educator workforce must be a core consideration in these plans in order to make integrated plans meaningful and deliverable.