One major criticism of the NHS Long Term Plan was the lack of any detail on workforce. This detail has begun to emerge with the publication of the Interim People Plan for the NHS. It looks at the need to transform the way the entire workforce, including doctors, nurses, allied health professionals (AHPs), pharmacists, healthcare scientists, dentists, non-clinical professions, social workers in the NHS, commissioners, non-executives and volunteers, work together. It works on the basis that multi-professional clinical teams will be the foundation of the future workforce, rather than treating the workforce as a group of separate professions.
This new multi-professional way of working will be essential for MSK services, where there are high levels of multimorbidity and good person-centred care is rarely the responsibility of one professional.
The plan has 5 themes:
- Making the NHS the best place to work
- Improving the leadership culture
- Tackling the nursing challenge
- Delivering 21st century care
- A new operating model for workforce
A full, costed five-year People Plan will be developed later this which will build on the vision and actions in this interim Plan. This will set out in more detail the changes to multi-professional education and training, career paths, skill mix and ways of working needed and quantify in more detail the full range of additional staff needed for each of the NHS Long Term Plan service priorities.
There are accompanying documents setting out the vision for the future workforce for allied health professionals and psychological professions; dental; healthcare science; medical; and pharmacy.