TO BE PUBLISHED July 2026
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This conference will examine next steps for the healthcare workforce in England. The agenda focuses on the forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan and how it may need to respond to the shift towards more community-based care, stronger prevention and greater digital capability outlined in the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England.
It will bring together key stakeholders and policymakers to discuss priorities for implementation, modelling, delivery and accountability - alongside implications for workforce strategy, service planning, training and leadership as reform is taken forward.
Delegates will consider what a credible workforce model will need to look like if it is to effectively support neighbourhood health services, respond to changing population need, and provide clarity for employers, professional bodies, training providers and others involved in planning and delivery. We expect discussion to reflect questions raised by stakeholders around capacity for delivering community services and the training pathways that will be required, workforce retention strategies, and assumptions underpinning long-term workforce projections and planning decisions.
Workforce capacity, training pathways & community care delivery
Sessions will assess practical options for securing the skills mix, education pathways and workforce distribution needed to support service reconfiguration, including the shift towards care closer to home.
Attendees will consider options for advancing community placements, apprenticeships, modular training routes and continuous learning, alongside approaches to developing effective personalised career coaching and development plans. Delegates will also discuss the evidence, data and modelling needed to inform decisions on workforce numbers, specialist demand and regional capacity required to support the scale of the shift toward community care.
Further practical enablers will also be considered, including equipping staff to work effectively as part of multidisciplinary teams and frameworks to support closer working across hospital, primary care and community health services. Discussion will also look at how community settings can become more attractive career options for the workforce, including opportunities to strengthen pay progression and career pathways in community roles alongside those available in acute settings.
Accountability, workforce data & digital capability
Sessions will examine questions of accountability and implementation. Areas for discussion include the monitoring of progress over time, evidence and data analysis to support long‑term workforce planning, and how workforce strategy can align more effectively with social care, public health and local service delivery. With concerns raised by stakeholders around community nursing capacity, training pressures and the practicalities of shifting roles across settings, delegates will also assess what a workable transition towards neighbourhood and community services is likely to require from local coordination, supervision and support.
Delegates will also consider priorities for embedding digital and data capabilities into workforce development, including strategies for integrating AI processes safely and effectively. Discussion will consider what may be needed to develop supportive learning pathways, how examples of best practice can be more widely shared and implemented, and options for developing standard core competencies to support workforce‑driven digital transformation.
Recruitment, retention & workforce leadership
Further discussion will examine priorities for strengthening recruitment and retention across the healthcare workforce, including ways forward for building a resilient domestic pipeline, addressing regional disparities in staffing, and tackling persistent shortages in hard-to-fill roles. Attendees will consider drivers of early‑career attrition and the importance of embedding long‑term wellbeing within workforce development pathways, including addressing the impact of how career progression, access to high‑quality supervision and the management of workload influence staff experience, morale and retention.
Discussion is also expected on options for the workforce strategy to respond to the wider employment context. Areas for discussion include issues around safe staffing expectations, industrial relations and changing patterns of flexible working. Delegates will consider approaches that may be needed to reduce reliance on international recruitment while maintaining service capacity and fairness in workforce supply, amidst concerns from some that government plans to reduce international recruitment to around 10% by 2035 may prove difficult to achieve.
The agenda will also look at next steps for physician associates and anaesthesia associates following the Government’s acceptance of recommendations in the independent review led by Professor Gillian Leng, particularly in relation to calls from some stakeholders for greater clarity on scope of practice, supervision, governance and supporting public confidence. Sessions will also look at leadership and organisational culture, including proposals for manager standards and regulation, and the development of the College of Executive and Clinical Leadership.
All delegates will be able to contribute to the output of the conference, which will be shared with parliamentary, ministerial, departmental and regulatory offices, and more widely. This includes the full proceedings and additional articles submitted by delegates. As well as key stakeholders, those already due to attend include officials from the Department of Health and Social Care; Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology; Care Quality Commission, Department of Health NI; and The Scottish Government.
