Background The NHS workforce is experiencing
significant challenges and urgent action is required to tackle staff shortages
and increased operational pressures, which have been exacerbated by the
Covid-19 pandemic. NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHS E & I) have set out
key priorities for 2022-23, emphasising the need to do things differently to
accelerate delivery...
Background
The NHS workforce is experiencing
significant challenges and urgent action is required to tackle staff shortages
and increased operational pressures, which have been exacerbated by the
Covid-19 pandemic. NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHS E & I) have set out
key priorities for 2022-23, emphasising the need to do things differently to
accelerate delivery against and redoubling the commitment to strategic goals agreed
in the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP). The Workforce Programme is strategically aligned
with the AHSN Network Strategy 2021-26 to ensure that the NHS workforce priorities
become more integral to our business-as-usual approach, and that as a Network
we can demonstrate long-term workforce impacts and outcomes on all our national
and local programmes.
Vision
Across the AHSN Network we will work collaboratively to
address the national workforce challenges by delivering evidence-based
innovations that realise transformational benefits for the health and care
workforce, both now and for the future.
Objectives
The main national objectives are:
- To strategically position AHSNs at
the centre of the workforce challenge response and where the most impacts can
be achieved, and value added.
- To widen the reach of the workforce
programme by embedding workforce impacts in all local and national initiatives
(where workforce impacts can be identified).
- To continue building AHSNs
capabilities to expedite understanding of the workforce impacts generated by an
increased number of programmes and provide a rigour to workforce impacts
reporting.
We seek to
identify workforce impacts in all programmes generated through:
- Pathway redesign and/or
- Innovation including digital, technology or AI
Workforce
is an important cross-cutting theme underpinning all national and local programmes,
with the collective AHSN impact aggregated and communicated early. We collate centralised
metrics as follows:
- Change in staff knowledge, skills and confidence
- Change in staff experience
- Time released
- Staff receiving an improvement or change in the way they work
These
metrics are agreed nationally across all 15 AHSNs and also implemented locally
into each of the local projects we manage.
Our
main local objectives are:
- Review of our local projects to identify
those that will deliver a workforce impact: these projects will have workforce
metrics assigned, built into the design of the project, and the project
workforce impacts reported using the AHSN Network Local Project Tracker.
- Working closely with our ICS and
organisation workforce leads, understand local workforce priorities and
challenges enabling us to align our projects and horizon scanning activities to
identify and help implement potential solutions
- Facilitate workshops/rapid insights
events to address key workforce issues and challenges.
