Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'Recruitment'.
Found 210 results
-
Content ArticleThis report by the Nuffield Trust looks at workforce training issues in England, arguing that the domestic training pipeline for clinical careers has been unfit for purpose for many years. It presents research that highlights leaks across the training pathway, from students dropping out of university, to graduates pursuing careers outside the profession they trained in and outside public services. Alongside high numbers of doctors, nurses and other clinicians leaving the NHS early in their careers, this is contributing to publicly funded health and social care services being understaffed and under strain. It is also failing to deliver value for money for the huge taxpayer investment in education and training.
-
Content ArticleThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the adult social care workforce in England and the characteristics of the 1.52 million people working in it. Topics covered include: recent trends in workforce supply and demand, employment overview, recruitment and retention, demographics, pay, qualification rates, and future workforce projections.
-
News Article
Agency profits growing due to ‘acute shortage of staff’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Two companies supplying staff to the NHS saw large growth in income and profits last year, annual accounts reveal. Independent Clinical Services, owned by a Canadian private equity firm, saw a growth in turnover of more than 40%, with income growing from £273m to £399m, year on year. A smaller company specialising in recruiting overseas healthcare staff to the UK also saw a bumper year, according to data released last month. Your World Recruitment Ltd’s income increased by nearly a third, going from £50.5m to £66.8m (up 32%), with a similar rise in profits. The company’s strategic report said: “Demand for agency staff and healthcare services in the first half of 2023 has remained strong principally due to staff shortages in the NHS and high waiting lists. “The board expects the challenging market conditions to continue for the remainder of 2023, although demand is expected to remain due to an acute shortage of healthcare workers in the UK and worldwide.” The NHS has been pushing hard for increased overseas recruitment in recent years, to fill domestic gaps." Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 10 October 2023 -
News Article
NHS only gains one ‘full-time’ GP for every two trainees, report finds
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS has to train two GPs to produce one full-time family doctor because so many have started to work part-time, new research reveals. The finding helps explain why GP surgeries are still struggling to give patients appointments as quickly as they would like, despite growing numbers of doctors training to become a GP. The disclosure is contained in a report by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank that lays bare the large number of nurses, midwives and doctors who quit during their training or early in their careers. “These high dropout rates are in nobody’s interest,” said Dr Billy Palmer, a senior fellow at the thinktank and co-author of the report. “They’re wasteful for the taxpayer, often distressing for the students and staff who leave, stressful for the staff left behind, and ultimately erode the NHS’s ability to deliver safe and high-quality care.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 28 September 2023 -
News Article
NHSE director ‘concerned by 20% nursing gap’ amid push to tackle poor culture
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS England’s national mental health director admitted she was ‘concerned’ that 20% of mental health nurse roles were unfilled and about the impact this could have on a nationwide push to improve safety and tackle closed cultures. Claire Murdoch was speaking to HSJ a year on from a series of high-profile documentaries exposing abuse and poor care at mental health trusts. In their wake, Ms Murdoch urged providers to urgently review safeguarding, while a separate three-year quality programme was also launched to look at closed cultures and improve safety. Now in the middle of that programme, Ms Murdoch stressed that stability in staffing is “vital” to developing safe and therapeutic care, but that many services across the country are struggling with significant nursing vacancies. She said: “The bit that absolutely we need to acknowledge [around changing cultures] is there are some significant workforce and staffing challenges, which I’m concerned about, with a 20%t vacancy of qualified registered mental health nurses nationally. “There are new support roles, psychology assistant roles, physician associates – there are all sorts coming into being in inpatient care, but a lot of services are still struggling with staffing". Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 September 2023 -
News ArticleA London coroner has warned the health secretary that preventable child suicides are likely to increase unless the government provides more funding for mental health services. Nadia Persaud, the east London area coroner, told Steve Barclay that the suicide of Allison Aules, 12, in July 2022 highlighted the risk of similar deaths “unless action is taken”. In a damning prevention of future deaths report addressed to Barclay, NHS England and two royal colleges, Persaud said the “under-resourcing of CAMHS [child and adolescent mental health services] contributed to delays in Allison being assessed by the mental health team”. An inquest into Allison’s death last month found that a series of failures by North East London NHS foundation trust (NELFT) contributed to her death. In her report, Persaud said delays and errors that emerged in the inquest exposed wider concerns about funding and recruitment problems in mental health services. “The failings occurred with a children and adolescent mental health service which was significantly under-resourced. Under-resourcing of CAMHS services is not confined to this local trust but is a matter of national concern,” she said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 14 September 2023
-
Content ArticleA patient safety partner (PSP) is actively involved in the design of safer healthcare at all levels in the organisation. This includes roles in safety governance – e.g. sitting on relevant committees to support compliance monitoring and how safety issues should be addressed and providing appropriate challenge to ensure learning and change – and in the development and implementation of relevant strategy and policy. NHS England has provided a description of the Patient Safety Partner role.
-
Content ArticleOne in three medical students plan to quit the NHS within two years of graduating, either to practise abroad or abandon medicine altogether, according to a survey published in BMJ Open. Poor pay, work-life balance and working conditions of doctors in the UK were the main factors cited by those intending to emigrate to continue their medical career. The same reasons were also given by those planning to quit medicine altogether, with nearly 82% of them also listing burnout as an important or very important reason. The findings from the study of 10,486 students at the UK’s 44 medical schools triggered calls for action to prevent an exodus of medical students from the NHS.
-
News Article
Nurses caring ‘for too many patients’ as vacancy rates rise again
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Around one in ten NHS nursing jobs remain unfilled leaving already stretched service struggling to cope. The number of unfilled NHS nursing jobs in England has risen again after falling slightly earlier this year. Between March and June of this year, the number of vacant nursing positions across the NHS in England increased by 3,243 taking the total to a staggering 43,339. With the number of applications to study nursing also falling by a massive 13,380 in just two years, experts admit they are concerned about how the NHS is going to cope. In real terms, the figures mean around one in ten NHS nursing jobs remain unfilled. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned the high vacancy rate will leave the health service “underprepared” for winter. Read full story Source: Nursing Notes, 25 August 2023 -
News Article
Nearly 7,000 ambulance workers in England left in past year, figures show
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ambulance services in England have experienced a mass exodus of staff in the past year with nearly 7,000 leaving their jobs, figures have revealed. The number of emergency service crew leavers has risen sharply compared with 2019 levels, prompting concern for patient safety during the next NHS winter crisis. The government has been called on to launch an urgent recruitment drive before winter to cover the 2,954 vacancies across all ambulance services in England. Daisy Cooper, Liberal Democrats' health and social care spokesperson, said: “With patients struggling to see a GP at the front door of the NHS and unable to access social care at the back door of the NHS, ambulance crews are unfairly caught between a rock and a hard place, picking up the slack from a health and care system that is broken at both ends. “Patients who struggle to access the care they need, when they need it, are then left waiting for emergency assistance in pain and distress for an ambulance. The shortage of NHS staff has caused untold pain for millions of people across the country, especially those left to wait for hours in pain for an ambulance to arrive. “The government must begin an urgent recruitment drive before winter begins and our ambulance services are yet again put under unsustainable strain. There is no time to waste.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 22 August 2023 -
Content ArticleGeorgia Stevenson discusses NHS England’s Long Term Workforce Plan, evaluating its potential to alleviate staffing shortages, enhance training routes, and ultimately improve care quality in maternity and neonatal services.
-
Content ArticleThe Director of Investigations will be an established leader and confident working alongside system leaders to play a crucial part in supporting the long-term strategic transformation of patient safety. This is an exciting period of change, and HSSIB are looking for an established senior leader to drive the transformation of investigations and insight teams to improve patient outcomes. Pay scheme: VSM Closing date for applications is 19 September 2023 Please note: This role is not part of NHS England and will start once the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) is established as a stand-alone organisation in October 2023.
-
News Article
‘Warts and all’ references for NHS leaders ‘may be attacked’
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
NHS England could have gone further to insist that errors and failures by senior NHS leaders are disclosed to future employers, according to the leading barrister who reviewed the NHS’s fit and proper person test (FPPT). Tom Kark KC’s review of the FPPT was delivered to government five years ago and made public the following year, and changes were finally proposed by NHSE earlier this month. In an interview with HSJ, Mr Kark said he broadly welcomed the plans, and that the revised framework should provide greater consistency across NHS boards “if applied correctly”; and could “strengthen the hand” of chairs and chief executives. Part of the purpose of the regime is to prevent senior managers and other board members who make big errors in one role, from keeping this secret from a future employer. Mr Kark told HSJ he had heard evidence that when “someone leaves under a cloud, they pop up somewhere else, and the information is lost.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 August 2023 -
Content ArticleThis report by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) highlights the impact of midwifery staffing shortages on women. It looks at historical failures to invest appropriately in maternity services and talks about a mounting maternity crisis, drawing attention to Care Quality Commission inspections of maternity services that are identifying concerns around safety directly linked to staffing shortages. According to the report’s findings, if the number of NHS midwives in England had risen at the same pace as the overall health service workforce since the last general election, there would be no midwife shortage; there would be 3,100 more midwives in the NHS, rather than having a shortfall of 2,500 full-time midwives. The RCM published the results of a survey last month which showed that midwives give 100,000 hours of free labour to the NHS per week to ensure safe care for women. It also showed that staffing levels were repeatedly cited as cause for concern around the safety of care, and that midwives and maternity support workers are exhausted and burnt out.
-
Content ArticleThe UK government’s long-awaited NHS workforce plan for England outlines a vision to increase the number of nursing staff in England over the next 15 years, with a promise of 170,000 more nurses by 2036/37. This article from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) outlines how the detail of the plan will affect nurses. It argues that the plan fails to acknowledge the financial investment needed if its objectives are to be fulfilled, and expresses the RCN's concern that it does not address financial support for student nurses.
-
Content ArticleWhat is the optimal skill mix for virtual wards? Do new roles such as clinical pharmacists or advanced practitioners act as substitutes for, or additions to, existing staff? What works to retain staff? How much do current rates of attrition and turnover cost the NHS and social care? Evidence gaps in workforce research are holding back healthcare improvements, say Tara Lamont, Cat Chatfield, and Kieran Walshe in this BMJ opinion piece.
-
Content ArticleIn this article, The King's Fund Chief Executive Richard Murray argues that if the NHS Workforce Plan manages to do the things it says it will do, the NHS could start to overcome the repeated workforce crises that have periodically plagued it over the past 75 years. He highlights that the plan sets out forecasts of future supply and demand for staff, with explanations of how these figures were derived, and that the `action’ it sets out encompasses everyone working in health including those in government.
-
Content ArticleAn independent review of how effectively the test prevents unsuitable staff from being redeployed or re-employed in health and social care settings.
-
News Article
Racism is ‘stain’ on NHS for staff and patients, says psychiatry chief
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Racism is “a stain on the NHS” and tackling it is key to recruiting and retaining staff, the outgoing president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) will warn. The health service has a moral, ethical and legal duty to do more to stamp out racism, Dr Adrian James is expected to say at the college’s international congress in Liverpool. He will cite pay gaps, disparities in disciplinary processes and a “glass ceiling” for doctors from minority ethnic backgrounds who want to progress into management positions as problems in the NHS that are linked to racism. Last month, the NHS Race and Health Observatory, which was formed in 2021 to examine disparities in health and social care based on race, said better anti-racism policies could strengthen the NHS workforce. The RCP agreed that “better care, training and anti-racist policies” would increase staff numbers in the NHS, and that this would “improve patient experience and save millions of pounds spent annually on addressing racism claims brought by staff, clinicians and patients”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 10 July 2023 -
Content ArticleThis study looked at nursing within the UK and The Netherlands' health sectors, which are both highly regulated with policies to increase inclusiveness. It aimed to investigate the interplay between employment conditions and policy measures at sectoral level, in order to identify how these both facilitate and limit employment participation for disabled workers.
-
EventuntilThe workforce crisis engulfing the health and care system is well documented with the social care staff vacancy rate at its highest since records began and the overall morale of the NHS workforce declining for a second year with significant numbers intending to leave the sector. This King's Fund event will be showcasing projects and case studies aimed at encouraging others to explore innovative and positively disruptive approaches to meeting challenges facing the health and social care workforce. It will cover areas including recruitment, retention, wellbeing, and equity, diversity and inclusion. Sessions will aim to: encourage senior leaders in integrated care systems, providers, public health and social care to think about how innovation becomes possible and what it means to take similarly mould-breaking mindsets into their own organisations inspire and catalyse new, imaginative approaches to seize opportunities as workforce responsibilities are devolved consider the impact of innovative approaches and their potential to be scaled up and replicated by others across health and care. You will hear about how innovative ways of working can be developed into practical approaches in the following areas: recruitment – developing disruptive approaches, using digital tools such as apps and online selection, and how those in health and care have been working with partners across local authorities and the housing sector attracting young people into the workforce – how people and organisations across health and social care have been engaging directly with communities and providing accessible routes into health and social care careers retention – supporting career pathways and development for people in support roles, working across an organisation to increase a sense of belonging, and building effective multidisciplinary teams and team behaviours workforce health and wellbeing – supporting staff following workplace trauma, developing cultures that meet the core needs of staff, and embracing flexibility and new ways of working to help people thrive throughout their careers making a difference to equity, diversity and inclusion in the health and care workplace – by using courageous leadership challenge (at all levels) to disrupt systemic patterns present in the health and care sector, and when diversity has been used as a real strength to create change. Register
-
Content Article
NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (30 June 2023)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in NHS England
The first comprehensive workforce plan for the NHS, putting staffing on a sustainable footing and improving patient care. It focuses on retaining existing talent and making the best use of new technology alongside the biggest recruitment drive in health service history. -
News ArticleHealthcare staff from the European Union can join or continue to work in the NHS for the next five years without undergoing additional exams or further assessments, the government has decided. The “standstill provisions”, which were put in place after the UK left the European Union in 2020, have been extended by government until 2028. The NHS has become increasingly reliant on recruiting staff from overseas, particularly nurses, but has seen a significant drop in the number of staff joining from the European Union post-Brexit. The review by the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Retaining the standstill provisions for a temporary period of five years will support the [DHSC’s] ambition to attract and recruit overseas healthcare professionals, without introducing complex and burdensome registration routes. “[European Economic Area]-qualified healthcare professionals will be able to continue to register with the relevant professional regulator, without the need to sit additional professional exams, mitigating delays to registration and employment in the NHS.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 29 June 2023
-
News Article
Government aims to boost NHS with thousands more doctors and nurses
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Thousands more doctors and nurses will be trained in England every year as part of a government push to plug the huge workforce gaps that plague almost all NHS services. The number of places in medical schools will rise from 7,500 to 10,000 by 2028 and could reach 15,000 by 2031 as a result of the NHS’s first long-term workforce plan. There will also be a big expansion in training places for those who want to become nurses, with the number rising by a third to 40,000 by 2028 – matching the number of nurses the health service currently lacks. Amanda Pritchard, the chief executive of NHS England, hailed the long-awaited plan as “a once in a generation opportunity to put staffing on a sustainable footing for years to come”. Medical groups, health experts and organisations representing NHS staff welcomed the plan as ambitious but overdue. Richard Murray, chief executive of the King’s Fund thinktank, said it could be a “landmark moment” for the health service by providing it with the staff it needs to provide proper care. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 June 2023- Posted
- 1 comment
-
- (and 6 more)
-
Content ArticleThis report assesses why NHS hospitals are failing to deliver higher activity despite higher spending on the service and higher levels of staffing over the last couple of years. It argues that politicians need to urgently focus on capital investment, staff retention and boosting management capacity, and sets out key questions for policy makers to address if they want to solve the NHS crisis. The NHS has been on a longer-term negative trajectory: most of the challenges identified in the report existed before the pandemic and have been exacerbated since.
