Next government must focus on building nurse workforce, warn deans
Health education leaders have written an open letter to the winner of the upcoming general election, calling on the next prime minister to take responsibility for solving key nursing workforce challenges.
This responsibility includes overseeing the “closer departmental join-up” that they said was needed for the “NHS to have the homegrown workforce it needs”.
They also called for whoever forms the next government to help fulfil education goals set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which was published a year ago.
“Together, we are calling for prime ministerial responsibility for the closer departmental join-up required for the NHS to have the homegrown workforce it needs”
Open letter
A key goal in the workforce plan was for a significant increase in the number of student nurses, midwives and allied health professionals taking university degrees and degree apprenticeships.
The open letter has been jointly signed by Council of Deans of Health chief executive Ed Hughes, University Alliance chief executive Vanessa Wilson and Rachel Hewitt, chief executive of MillionPlus.
As well as closer departmental join-up, they called for support on better collaboration between higher education providers and NHS trusts, and measures to increase nurse student uptake, among others.
Their letter states: “Despite welcome progress, both nationally and locally these sectors still do not work as closely as needed to make the necessary strides forward on issues such as student recruitment, retention, placement provision and employment.
“To deliver the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the incentives of both health and education sectors need closer alignment and their individual challenges tackling collaboratively.
“Together, we are calling for prime ministerial responsibility for the closer departmental join-up required for the NHS to have the homegrown workforce it needs,” they said in the letter.
The next government will have a “golden opportunity”, they said, and suggested four key measures that should be taken to improve health education and achieve the ambitions of the long term workforce plan.
The letter continued: “Progressing to the next level will need the coordinating power of a prime minister for a whole-of-government approach to this essential mission.
“Almost a year on from the launch of the long term workforce plan, our experience in supporting its delivery leads to this call – to avoid confusion on where responsibility lies and prevent pressing issues ‘falling between the gaps’.”
The first measure, which the leaders said they would “support” the government in doing, was to increase the number of healthcare educators and researchers needed to “sustain, let alone grow” the domestically educated NHS workforce.
The leaders also asked for measures to reverse what they described as a “significant decline” in applications for healthcare courses.
According to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), 2023-24 entry applications for nursing courses at UK higher education providers were 7% lower than 2022-23, and 32.5% lower than 2020-21.
In addition, the leaders called on the next government to ensure clearer pathways from education to employment were formed through better collaboration between trusts, universities and further education colleges. To do this, they asked for an improvement in the provision of placements.
Further more, the education leaders said they would support the government to “streamline” regulation over health education, to deliver the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
Their letter, published today, comes ahead of the general election, due to take place next Thursday on 4 July.
Last September, before the election was called, the Council of Deans of Health launched a manifesto encouraging major political parties to adopt similar measures to those mentioned in the open letter.
These included addressing the shortfall in educators, boosting student recruitment and retention, and improving the regulation of health education.
Commenting on the open letter, Mr Hughes said: “Creating and supporting the health workforce of the future can only be achieved through effective joint working across the health and education sectors.
“[This must be] underpinned by an integrated approach to policy-making which aligns the incentives for students, education providers, training placement settings and employers.
“Our members are ready to play their part in this, and to work with the next government to help realise the ambitions of the Long Term Workforce Plan for the NHS,” he added.
