An independent review recommended measures aimed at improving the health and well-being of National Health Service staff, which could help save the NHS up to £555 million each year. The government said that it accepted the recommendations in full.
Source: Steve Boorman/NHS Health and Well-being Review, NHS Health and Well-Being: Final Report, Department of Health (08701 555455)
Links: Boorman Report | Hansard | DH letter | DH press release | CSP press release | Work Foundation press release | CIPD press release | Personnel Today report | People Management report | Community Care report
Date: 2009-Nov
A think-tank report said that workforce planning had to be a core part of the productivity and quality improvement agenda in the National Health Service.
Source: Candace Imison, James Buchan and Su Xavier, NHS Workforce and Planning: Limitations and possibilities, King's Fund (020 7307 2591)
Links: Report | King's Fund press release
Date: 2009-Nov
The government announced that the minimum qualification level for pre-registration courses for nurses would be raised from diploma to degree level with effect from 2013.
Source: Press release 12 November 2009, Department of Health (020 7210 4850)
Links: DH press release | RCN press release | NHS Employers press release | Personnel Today report | BBC report | Guardian report | People Management report
Date: 2009-Nov
A leaked internal report said that the National Health Service would have to lose around 137,000 jobs – almost one-tenth of its workforce – if it were to meet planned efficiency savings of £20 billion by 2014.
Source: The Guardian, 2 September 2009
Links: Guardian report | NHS Confederation press release | RCN press release | Health Service Journal report | People Management report | Local Government Chronicle report
Date: 2009-Sep
A report said that there was evidence that exhortation and guidance alone would not bring widespread improvements in staff involvement and engagement in the National Health Service, and that ways for staff to participate formally in the running of their organizations should be explored.
Source: Chris Ham and Jo Ellins, NHS Mutual: Engaging staff and aligning incentives to achieve higher levels of performance, Nuffield Trust (020 631 8450)
Links: Report | Summary | Health Services Management Centre press release
Date: 2009-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs examined the pay modernization programme for National Health Service staff in England. It said that NHS Trusts had not established ways of measuring the effects of the programme, and that the programme had not yet brought about service-wide changes in the ways in which staff worked.
Source: NHS Pay Modernisation in England: Agenda for Change, Twenty-ninth Report (Session 2008-09), HC 310, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Telegraph report | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Jun
An article examined attempts to modernize the clinical healthcare workforce, and the opposition to them by powerful professional groups.
Source: Graeme Currie, Rachael Finn and Graham Martin, 'Professional competition and modernizing the clinical workforce in the NHS', Work, Employment and Society, Volume 23 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Jun
A report examined the changing gender balance in medicine, and the implications for the profession, the National Health Service, and health service managers. Women were set to become the majority of all doctors sometime after 2017. Women were more likely to work part time and focus on particular specialities: but there was no evidence that they were more likely than men to leave medicine entirely.
Source: Mary Ann Elston, Women and Medicine: The Future, Royal College of Physicians (020 7935 1174)
Links: Report | Summary | RCP press release | Telegraph report | BBC report | Guardian report | Pulse report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2009-Jun
Two reports set out proposals designed to improve the regulation and governance of healthcare professionals.
Source: Tackling Concerns Nationally: Establishing the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator, Department of Health (web publication only) | Tackling Concerns Locally: Report of the Working Group, Department of Health (web publication only)
Links: Report (1) | Report (2) | DH press release
Date: 2009-Mar
A report put forward a series of recommendations for promoting leadership diversity in the National Health Service, and highlighted the importance of a better understanding of the links between diversity and organizational success. Research suggested that there might be a pool of talent of non-white staff at middle management level that was hitting a 'glass ceiling'.
Source: Access of BME Staff to Senior Positions in the NHS, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement (0800 555 550)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Jan
An audit report examined the 'Agenda for Change' programme designed to reform and standardize the pay and conditions of around 1.1 million staff in the National Health Service in England. In 2007-08, it was estimated that the annual pay bill was between £166 million (0.6 per cent) higher and £239 million (0.8 per cent) lower than it might have been had the programme not been implemented: but the programme could not yet be shown to have enhanced value for money.
Source: NHS Pay Modernisation in England: Agenda for Change, HC 125 (Session 2008-09), National Audit Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Summary | NAO press release | NHS Employers press release | Telegraph report | BBC report | Guardian report | People Management report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2009-Jan
The government announced (following a consultation report) the creation of a new 'centre of excellence' designed to provide high-quality intelligence and evidence to inform workforce planning and strengthen decision-making at every level in the National Health Service.
Source: Press release 30 January 2009, Department of Health (020 7210 4850) | Anna Dixon, Jonathan Firth and James Buchan, Proposals for a Centre of Excellence for Workforce Strategy and Planning, Department of Health (08701 555455)
Links: DH press release | Report
Date: 2009-Jan
