The NHS people plan

NHS England and NHS Improvement published the long overdue people plan for 2020-21 on 30 July 2020.1 The plan had originally been expected last winter, after the interim plan was published in June 2019.2

The NHS is the UK’s largest employer and one of the biggest employers globally. It has been described as “the most complex, risky, and expensive single industry in Europe with the most educated (and intrinsically motivated) staff.”3 Staffing has overtaken funding to become the top risk facing the health and care sector,4 yet the NHS has a poor track record of workforce planning. Responsibility for workforce issues at a national level has been fragmented since reforms introduced by the Health and Social Care Act 2012, and worryingly high numbers of doctors and nurses are leaving their jobs early. This inevitably affects the ability to deliver good local services and the best outcomes for patients.

Why has a workforce plan taken so long to publish? To be fair to its authors, …