Last year we shared that five colleagues had embarked on a journey to learn more about strategic workforce planning to meet growing needs. Today, NHS Midlands and Lancashire is proud to share that, following 12 months of dedicated effort, all five colleagues from our People Consultancy Team and Transformation Unit have successfully enhanced their expertise.

This professional development journey, funded by NHS England and accredited by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), focused on six key stages of workforce planning. The programme emphasised evidence-based approaches that address the evolving challenges in health and care.

How we can support you with strategic workforce planning

Building on their extensive experience in workforce planning and transformation, the team have incorporated their learning into our consultancy offer. This includes integrating methodologies such as the CIPD Strategic Workforce Planning framework, the Six Steps Methodology and the HEE STAR model. These approaches allow us to deliver tailored, effective solutions to the complex workforce challenges faced by our clients.

The new capabilities are already having a significant impact. We’ve supported clients in:

• Responding to operational planning guidance
• Developing productivity and efficiency schemes
• Conducting capacity and demand modelling
• Leading skills mix reviews and workforce redesign
• Developing workforce transformation action plans.

As part of the NHS New Hospitals Programme, we recently designed and delivered a bespoke skills development programme for a diverse group of leaders in strategic workforce planning and redesign. The programme received outstanding feedback, and we’re now exploring how to further build capability and confidence in these critical areas across the health and care sector.

How to access our job planning expertise

This achievement coincided with our securing a place on a new job planning framework. We are pleased to announce that we are now on the NHS Job Planning Consultancy and Implementation Services National Framework.

Through this framework, NHS organisations can access expert support to optimise their medical job planning systems and processes, including:

• Audit and analysis of current job planning systems and processes
• Detailed demand analysis, both actual and forecasted
• Development of model job plans based on demand data and aligned with NHS, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and British Medical Association (BMA) best practice standards
• Identification of gaps and variances between existing and model job planning approaches
• Design of optimised systems and processes for medical job planning
• Implementation support for transitioning to the optimised job planning model
• Knowledge transfer to ensure NHS organisations can sustain and continuously improve upon the changes.

This framework enables NHS organisations to enhance medical job planning practices, ensure consistency, and deliver more effective and efficient patient care.