UK recruitment trade bodies have responded to the first ever NHS (National Health Service) Long Term Workforce Plan.

A record numbers of doctors, nurses, dentists and other healthcare staff are set to be trained in England as part of the ‘Long Term Workforce Plan’ published by the NHS and backed by the government.

The NHS plan also aims to reduce reliance on agency spend that could cut the bill for taxpayers by around £10 billion between 2030/31 and 2036/37.

“The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets out how the NHS will address existing vacancies and meet the challenges of a growing and ageing population by recruiting and retaining hundreds of thousands more staff over 15 years and working in new ways,” the NHS stated.

The NHS plan focusses on retaining existing talent and making the best use of new technology alongside the biggest recruitment drive in health service history to address the gap, the government stated.

It was commissioned and accepted by the government, which has backed the plan with over £2.4 billion to fund additional education and training places over five years on top of existing funding commitments.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, “On the 75th anniversary of our health service, this government is making the largest single expansion in NHS education and training in its history. This is a plan for investment and a plan for reform.”

“In the coming years we will train twice the number of doctors and an extra 24,000 more nurses a year, helping to cut waiting lists and improve patient care,” Sunak said. “And we will do more to retain our brilliant NHS staff and reform the way the health system works to ensure it is fit for the future. This is something no other government has done and will be one of the most significant commitments I will make as prime minister – acting as the cornerstone for our vision for a better, more modern healthcare system and putting the NHS on a sure footing for the long term.”

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, said, “Our plan will end the reliance on expensive agency staff, while cutting waiting lists in the coming years and building an NHS which can match up to the scale of tomorrow’s challenges.”

Responding to the plan, the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) Deputy Chief Executive Kate Shoesmith said, “We have waited far too long for this plan. There is a desperate need for a long-term workforce plan for NHS because our data shows more than 68,000 unfilled job vacancies for nurses in June alone – far more job ads than for nursery, primary and secondary teaching professionals combined.”

On agency staff spending, Shoesmith said, “NHS England wanting to reduce their expensive staff bills is understandable but has been unachievable because of its failure to attract and retain staff. This has left agencies playing a more crucial role in staffing than their original purpose to plug gaps. Rather than condemn and sideline agencies, these agencies show the NHS how to give healthcare workers flexible working, more regular pay, feelings of esteem and more frequent time away from the hectic frontline.”

 “Agency is actually not the most expensive option when it comes to staffing solutions,” Shoesmith continued. “The cost of the temporary workforce has been increasing sharply since the pandemic but this largely due not to agencies but to the NHS’ increasing spend elsewhere, from staff banks to off-framework contracts, where the systems put in place to manage costs have failed.”

For the first time the Plan sets out long term workforce projections. Staffing shortfalls have been an issue since the foundation of the NHS and vacancies now stand at 112,000. The growing and ageing population, coupled with new treatments and therapies, means that without action, the gap could grow up to 360,000 by 2037.

The Long Term Workforce Plan sets out the path to: double medical school training places to 15,000 by 2031, with more places in areas with the greatest shortages;  increase the number of GP (general practitioner) training places by 50% to 6,000 by 2031; almost double the number of adult nurse training places by 2031, with 24,000 more nurse and midwife training places a year by 2031.

Taken with retention measures, the NHS Plan could mean the health service has at least an extra 60,000 doctors, 170,000 more nurses and 71,000 more allied health professionals in place by 2036/37.

Meanwhile, more training places will be offered through degree apprenticeships.

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) has warned that short-term solutions are needed to supplement the long-term strategy if the healthcare crisis is to be alleviated.

Tania Bowers, Global Public Policy Director at APSCo said, “We welcome the focus on training many more doctors, nurses and affiliated skills but as the prime minister has already alluded to, it could take 15 years to have a real impact. The NHS is in crisis and needs immediate action to alleviate this.

“Increasing training and diversifying routes into healthcare employment will only be effective if people choose to practice their profession in the NHS and build a career within it,” Bowers said.

“The UK needs to show it has a globally competitive healthcare sector that people want to work in. Reducing the reliance on globally trained healthcare professionals during a staffing shortage isn’t viable,” Bowers continued.

“Clear leadership and ownership is needed by government and NHS employers to cut the red tape, which would deliver immediate results,” Bowers said. “An example is the lack of conformity around pre-hiring compliance and safety checks of permanent and agency staff which is contributing to the increased costs and delays of getting nurses and doctors in front of patients. A specialist, compliant to work for a Trust hospital under one CCG (clinical commissioning group), may not necessarily be so at another hospital or primary care centre that operates under the same group, meaning there is minimal agility or responsiveness in workforce management.

“One aim of the reform is to reduce NHS providers’ reliance on agency workers, currently critical to fill resourcing gaps,” Bowers added. “Members report these gaps are partly created by staff choosing to leave the service and work as locums or to reduce their permanent hours to supplement pay through better paid agency work, a necessity for them due to the surging cost of living. Rather than the agencies driving the demand, it is candidates choosing to work this way, reducing the access the NHS providers have to staff directly. In any workforce as complex as the NHS there will always be a need for agency workers and government must recognise the sector as part of a well-managed solution.”

“There are shorter term steps that government must consider: standardised compliance checks and onboarding processes across the trusts, primary care and social care, to facilitate efficient, free movement between care settings; reform of the apprenticeship levy to allow reskilling and upskilling of existing staff through flexible, modular training; and a focus on working conditions as well as pay and benefits to remotivate the current workforce,” Bowers said.

For the full NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, click here.