November 2020
Price: £95 PLUS VAT
Format: DOWNLOADABLE PDF
***Full-scale policy conference taking place online***
This conference focuses on the delivery of ambitions in the newly published NHS People Plan, and wider priorities for the health workforce.
It also takes place with:
- intensification of the recruitment drive for health and social care staff
- unprecedented personal and professional challenges for those working across the NHS in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic
The discussion at a glance:
Assessing what will be needed for ambitions in the newly published NHS People Plan to be achieved, including:
- improving health and wellbeing support for all staff
- tackling discrimination and fostering a sense of belonging
- adopting innovation in care and ways of working
- making the most of staff skills and experience
- recruitment, retention and encouraging previous staff to re-join the NHS
- plans for an additional people plan focussed on pay, based on workforce numbers and funding
The agenda:
- Delivering the ambitions in the NHS People Plan - culture and supporting staff, embracing innovation, and recruitment and personal development
- Key trends for the NHS workforce
- Approaches to the nursing shortage - incentives, training, and staff retention
- Recruitment of Allied Health Professionals in the NHS
- The workforce for the future - valuing support, engagement and skills
- A more inclusive workforce - promoting diversity, tackling discrimination, and improving representation at all levels in the NHS
- Enhancing mental health resilience and meeting the wellbeing needs for frontline health workers
- Providing 21st century care in the NHS - service collaboration, utilising technology, professional development and support
- The future of the NHS workforce - supporting staff, compassionate leadership, and changes resulting from COVID-19
The NHS People Plan and its commitments:
- Staff welfare and modern employment practices
- staff mental health - piloting new approaches to support improvement such as resilience hubs
- flexible working patterns - to be available for all advertised job roles from January 2021
- vulnerable staff - risk assessments for all to help targeted support
- positive workplace culture - developing an NHS England and NHS Improvement toolkit by 2021
- violence reduction - introducing an NHS standard by December 2020 aimed at establishing a systematic approach to protecting staff
- wellbeing guardians - for every NHS organisation
- Recruitment and retention
- marketing - launch of a new international campaign to promote the NHS
- returning staff - encouraging retention of clinical staff who responded to calls to return during the pandemic
- workforce shortages - introducing grants to support specific sectors, including cancer and mental health nursing
- funding - £10m for clinical placements to support education and training of new nurses, midwives and allied health professionals
- collaboration with higher education institutions - to support increases in undergraduate places for nursing, midwifery, allied health professions, dental therapy and hygienist programmes
- diversity - publishing progress reports to help ensure that the workforce is representative in terms of the black and ethnic minority workforce in NHS trusts, foundation trusts and CCGs
- volunteering - a National Learning Hub to support the learning, training and development of volunteers across the NHS and social care, and support for volunteers to gain jobs in the NHS
- staff morale - a quarterly tracking survey alongside the current annual report
- NHS pay - amid criticism regarding its absence from the plan, the Government has confirmed an additional people plan, based on workforce numbers and funding, will be issued once the forthcoming spending review has confirmed NHS budgets
- Encouraging innovation and new ways of working
- the experience of COVID-19 - building on the innovative and collaborative work during the pandemic, including cross-sector teams to support social care with infection control and prevention
- keeping pace with change - supporting staff deployment, redeployment and upskilling to continue to meet developments in the needs of the workforce, and in patient and staff safety
- technology-enhanced learning and professional development - continuing its use to support workforce engagement with remote consultations, triages and treatment
- integrating education and training into the plans to restart clinical services
- online education - widening access, and promoting a flexible approach to learning and use of immersive and other innovative technologies, with several universities planning blended learning nursing degrees
Further developments and areas for discussion:
- Research into the impact of the pandemic on the workforce - the Health Secretary’s speech to NHS Providers outlining work to identify staff most at risk and requiring tailored support moving forward
- Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill - with concerns that proposals around skills and salary may have an adverse impact on the health workforce
- the impact of COVID-19 on health and social care workforce recruitment in the UK - and internationally, with discussion expect one the potential effectiveness on:
- launch of the new Health and Care Visa will be launched this summer and exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge for NHS and care workers
- one year extensions for some nurses, pharmacists, midwives and radiographers to health worker visas that expire between March and October 2020 due to COVID-19
- NHS England and NHS Confederation launch expert research centre on health inequalities - creation of the independent NHS Race and Health Observatory to identify and tackle specific health challenges facing patients, communities and NHS staff from BAME backgrounds
- expected surge in demand for services - as non-COVID-19 routine services and treatments, such as cancer screening, are encourage and phased back in
- Better tech: not a ‘nice to have’ but vital to have for the NHS - workforce engagement with technology highlighted by the Secretary of State as a priority
- Action for equality: The time is now - the NHS Confederation’s Health and Care Women Leaders Network calling for senior-level support for diversity at board level and the bringing forward of senior leadership, particularly in areas such as medical director and chief finance officer roles
Policy officials attending:
Our forums are known for attracting strong interest from policymakers and stakeholders.
This one is no different. Places have been reserved by officials from the Department of Health and Social Care; the Cabinet Office; HM Treasury; the DWP; the Health and Safety Executive; National Audit Office; BEIS; The Scottish Government and the Welsh Government.
This is a full-scale conference taking place online***
- full, four-hour programme including comfort breaks - you’ll also get a full recording to refer back to
- information-rich discussion involving key policymakers and stakeholders
- conference materials provided in advance, including speaker biographies
- speakers presenting via webcam, accompanied by slides if they wish, using the Cisco WebEx professional online conference platform (easy for delegates - we’ll provide full details)
- opportunities for live delegate questions and comments with all speakers
- a recording of the addresses, all slides cleared by speakers, and further materials, is made available to all delegates afterwards as a permanent record of the proceedings
- delegates are able to add their own written comments and articles following the conference, to be distributed to all attendees and more widely
- networking too - there will be opportunities for delegates to e-meet and interact - we’ll tell you how!
Full information and guidance on how to take part will be sent to delegates before the conference