Workforce and Technology Change

The development of a workforce that is fit for future requirements is fundamental to delivering the health system for 2010 and beyond. Redesigning the workforce, however, has been an area which the NHS has found most difficult and although not new, it was never part of mainstream practice.

Introduction

A key element of service modernisation, following the publication of the NHS Plan, was to develop new ways of working. Over the last few years the NHS Modernisation Agency and the New Ways of Working Team's Changing Workforce Programme have piloted and tested a number of roles aimed to modernise the way services are delivered. This has been done by redesigning roles around the needs of the patient, enabling staff to examine the way they work, making the most effective use of their skills and challenging the demarcation of roles and responsibilities between groups of staff.

Many of these roles have now become mainstream practice and importantly, it has been recognised, through such developments such as Hospital at Night, that breaking down hierarchical barriers and creating flexible team based approaches can deliver high quality, responsive patient care.

Employing more staff has brought many benefits to the NHS but expanding the workforce will, on its own, not be sufficient to deliver the major improvement in patient services that are required. It's not about more staff working harder, it's about staff working smarter, using available technology within efficient systems and well designed buildings in order to maximise their skills.

The UK Labour Market and Health

• The health care sector employs more than 1,250,000 people in the UK
• Social care sectors employ between 875,000 and 1,250,000 people
• Health and social care sectors employ 1:10 of the working population
• The healthcare workforce is predominantly female-80%
• The current growth in the UK healthcare workforce has mainly been achieved through overseas recruitment.
• Overseas health professionals make up 25% of that part of the workforce
• Current training patterns and working practices make it difficult to respond rapidly to changing healthcare needs, recognised by Modernising Medical Careers (MMC).
• The UK currently employs fewer doctors and nurses per head of population than other OECD countries

Future Trends

There are significant challenges ahead if the health service is to recruit and retain staff and there will be greater competition for skilled people especially female workers who require more flexible work patterns.

Future trends include:

• The number of people working in the UK will grow slightly, but there will be an increase in the ratio of retired people to those in work
• Education levels will rise, with the UK workforce expected to become more qualified.
• The number of school leavers going on to higher education is likely to reach 45% from 35% in the mid 1990's
• The number of qualified women in the workforce will increase to over 50% of graduates and 45% of the workforce by 2010. Job opportunities for women will therefore expand
• Workforce participation rates will fall as more people remain in full-time education

The European Working Time Directive has already restricted the hours that people work and this will affect the healthcare sector further in 2009 reducing the working week for junior doctors to a maximum of 48 hours. This has had, and will continue to have, considerable implications as to how care is provided and who provides it, particularly in smaller hospitals and in certain specialities such as maternity, paediatrics and anaesthetics.

The NHS Employers website has some useful resources on age diversity: Equality and Diversity - Age

As FHN is now closed, these pages will no longer be updated.