The NHS must have a workforce in sufficient numbers and with the necessary skills to provide the best possible patient care. It must also be affordable and have the flexibility to respond to new healthcare policies and developments. Ensuring there are enough people, properly trained and readily available to deploy when and where they are needed requires effective planning.

By anticipating demographic, technological and policy developments, and by understanding workforce dynamics, planning can help to prevent staffing crises and ensure that investment in recruitment, education and workforce development is properly targeted to achieve the maximum return on investment. Effective workforce planning is especially important when large-scale change is proposed, such as the shift of services from acute hospitals to community and primary care settings.

The workforce planning processes

NHS West Midlands provides a regional approach to workforce planning and to promote a comprehensive and systematic approach to workforce planning four phases have been identified as:

• assessing demand – understanding the commissioning and financial plans from each provider and the impact of policy changes on the organisation/ local health economy;

• workforce modelling – based on activity and financial plans, the development of models to test future staffing scenarios at a pathway and organisational level and to consider, for example, competences along the patient pathway, measures to change skill mix and to boost productivity;

• reviewing the current workforce – understanding the current workforce, including their current competences and qualifications;

• making it happen – undertaking a gap analysis and devising education, training, workforce and organisational development strategies to secure the future workforce required. This will include upskilling the current workforce and commissioning education for the future workforce.