What should a health and social care workforce strategy look like?

This week’s cross-party parliamentary report on the NHS and social care workforce paints a bleak picture. Highlighting Nuffield Trust estimates, the committee points out that the NHS has struggled with 12 000 hospital doctor vacancies and more than 50 000 nurse and midwife vacancies.1 Although the majority of these may be filled from day to day with temporary staff, many thousands are not. To make matters worse, staff absences across healthcare providers caused by sickness or self-isolation have topped 100 000 a day at various points during the pandemic.2 The situation, in most respects, is worse in social care.In the words of the committee, “it is time to stop photographing the problem and deal with it.” To do so, the report is clear that credible NHS and social care workforce strategies—things that have been repeatedly kicked into the long grass—are necessary. But what should such strategies cover?Five essential componentsFirstly, a…
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