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Authors

  • Sandra Meadows

With an ageing workforce and fewer young people coming forward to fill vacancies, the NHS urgently needs sensitive and imaginative policies that help recruit older people into posts.

Looking at how early retirement is affecting the NHS, this research paper argues that the NHS must take urgent steps to ensure that older people are enabled to become key contributors to its workforce.

Sustained commitment from the government and local NHS management – backed up by resources and a determination to make 'people issues' central to performance management – will be essential.

Great to be Grey also argues that measures such as lifelong learning, flexible working and approaches to retirement, effective occupational health support, wider access to training programmes, and career advice, counselling and life planning can also recruit older employees.