Around 70% of the NHS budget is spent employing and developing staff, so it is essential that we have efficient and effective systems in place to secure, develop and deploy the healthcare workforce.

NHS West Midlands has a specific remit to commission workforce education and training and also to provide postgraduate medical education, to ensure the availability of an appropriate healthcare workforce for all healthcare providers.

The aspirations to provide safer and more responsive health services, to offer greater choice, to improve quality and to deliver person-centred care, depends on having a competent and flexible workforce. In addition to the high levels of skill already achieved by many sections of the workforce, future healthcare staff will need to develop new competences and adopt new ways of working. In short, our challenge is not only to sustain, but also to transform the healthcare workforce.

We bring together all aspects of workforce developments, which enables us to address challenges associated with recruitment, retention, workforce modelling and planning, team working and productivity, education commissioning and quality assurance and role and career development. Our "Investing for the Workforce" document describes how we will lead and support workforce transformation, working through strategic partnerships with the NHS and other organisations in the West Midlands and beyond.