Health leaders have urged the Government to attach funding to ‘any priorities’ set by the upcoming 10 year workforce plan.
The plan, which the Government was initially due to publish this summer, is now due later this year.
In a letter to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, 74 health organisations suggested this plan was a ‘key opportunity’ to deliver improvements for staff and boost retention and morale.
However, signatories, including NHS Confederation, NHS Providers, and the RCGP, said it was ‘crucial’ to get ‘robust stakeholder engagement’ and ‘allow the time to produce a thorough, credible workforce plan with stakeholder buy-in and an accompanying implementation plan’.
‘We are clear that funding will need to be attached to any priorities that the plan sets,’ it added.
The letter also called for independently verified modelling, following the National Audit Office’s analysis of the long term workforce plan, which recommended that future ‘assumptions should be generated in transparent and systematic consultation with external stakeholders’.
It said: ‘We welcome that the government has committed to publish a 10 year workforce plan. A well-resourced NHS workforce will be essential to delivering the three shifts in the 10 year health plan for England.
‘Only a third of staff believe there are enough staff in their organisation to do their job properly and we know that patients are waiting too long to get the care they need. Patients and staff must be confident that the proposals in the 10 year workforce plan will lead to a more sustainably staffed health service.’
The letter added that organisations welcomed the opportunity to support the delivery of a plan and requested a timeline for engagement.
It follows the news that Frimley ICB is to split in the new configuration of the health service across England. It said this would ‘regrettably’ include staff redundancies.
Last week it was revealed that threats of nurse redundancies and ongoing uncertainty around cuts to ICBs was placing strain on the workforce.
