The future of health care workforce planning

The publication of Lord Darzi's NHS Next Stage Review has flagged up the latest challenges facing the workforce policy and planning systems in the health sector.

Changes such as the planned refocus on primary care with associated shifts in resources and staff, a mixed economy of public and private health care provision, shifting patterns of disease, an ageing population and changing patient expectations all impact on workforce requirements. 

Developing an effective supply strategy for health care staff is notoriously difficult, given the long timescales between decisions being made about how many students to train and the time when students qualify and enter the workforce. Also, as Darzi highlighted, with up to 70 per cent of NHS costs linked to staffing and approximately £4 billion spent annually on training staff, it is vital that we examine the dynamics between demand for and the supply of this valuable and expensive resource.

Centre of Excellence - strengthening workforce strategy and planning

The Next Stage Review report A High Quality Workforce announced plans for a Centre of Excellence to support workforce strategy and planning in the NHS. We are carrying out a consultation across the health and social care system to feed into our recommendations to the Department of Health.

Workforce planning: learning from international case studies

The King’s Fund is undertaking a project on the future of workforce planning post-Darzi. We aim to set out the background to workforce planning in England, examine the international context, explore alternatives and recommend changes to the current planning system. Our key aims are to:

  • identify the changing demands that a more diverse and market-driven health system has for health care staff
  • identify the challenges that a greater diversity of health care providers poses for workforce planning
  • explore alternative ways in which the supply of appropriately trained and experienced health care staff can be managed
  • examine how other market-based health care systems internationally manage workforce planning
  • make recommendations about further changes that are needed to the current approach to workforce planning in England.
We have held two events to inform this work. Read further details and download presentations from the December 2007 event.

See also