NHS workforce plan – Healthwatch England’s response

The NHS plan makes welcome commitments to significantly expanding training places for doctors and nurses. In line with our past recommendations, it also commits to investing in flexibility for staff roles and further investment in non-GP roles in primary care, including through an additional 15,000 staff members to be recruited through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme.

However, even if the plan delivers on its commitments around training places, we will not see this translate to a growth in the workforce until the end of the decade.

Better retention of existing staff will be crucial in the coming year, yet the plan contains very few concrete commitments which could lead to that.

The plan was commissioned and accepted by the Government, which has backed the plan with over £2.4 billion to fund additional education and training places over five years on top of existing funding commitments. However, it is still not clear how it will fund this investment.