Workforce Transformation

In recent years the numbers of health visitors in the workforce have declined, as has the number of health visitor student placements offered by PCTs. Increasing the numbers in the health visitor workforce is part of the NHS Operating Framework and the SHA (Strategic Health Authority) Assurance Framework as well as a key priority for the government as set out in the coalition agreement and comprehensive spending review.  This document seeks to outline what the North West objectives and implementation plan is following the recent call to action. 

There is increasing recognition at a national level that our health and social care workforces need to work differently - across traditional professional boundaries, in different settings, with greater communication and integration with other services, at all levels of the career framework, with different individual skills and team skill mixes.The predicted ageing of our population, with increasingly complicated health and care needs, led to the introduction of the national Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention programme (QIPP) in 2008.

Based on current available data, the healthcare science (HCS) workforce is understood to form approximately 5% of the workforce, yet their work is believed to provide input to around 80% of all diagnostic decisions.But wait, do we (the NHS) really understand where healthcare scientists are within our organisations, what roles they are undertaking and even how many there actually are?The answer will probably come as no surprise, but evidence shows that at organisational level there is very little knowledge about the healthcare science workforce.

There are 290 recommendations within the Francis Report which are fully outlined in the Report’s Executive Summary.This briefing is a summary of the key recommendations that Dean Royles, director of NHS Employers, has identified as having a workforce focus. Dean is a regular conference speaker, published in a number of journals and provides expert opinion in the national media. He was voted HR’s Most Influential Practitioner in 2012. 

Within most NHS hospitals the healthcare science workforce is likely to be the second largest workforce responsible for delivering diagnostic investigation and interventions. Yet their existence is still largely hidden, not only from their own individual employers, but also from the general public. The skills possessed by this workforce are critical in ensuring that the NHS is able to recover from the current financial pressures and also to deliver robust high quality services across patient pathways from primary, through to secondary and tertiary care.

The NHS North West (NW) Healthcare Science Network is a professional network created in 2004 and has been instrumental in promoting, supporting, developing and representing the Healthcare Science workforce of over 7000 scientists in the NW.This funded network represents Healthcare Scientists from over 45 different specialisms across the three divisions of Life Science, Physiological Science and Physical Science and Engineering.Locating Healthcare Scientists in the NW couldn’t be easier as a new NW Healthcare Science Directory for 2012 is now available for download at

Pride in Practice is a service provided by The Lesbian & Gay Foundation to GP practices to support improvements in health outcomes for their lesbian, bisexual and gay (LGB) patients, as well as strengthen their engagement with and understanding of the LGB community.It publically celebrates GP practices that are delivering inclusive services and supports them to further develop their services through advice, support, resources and training through a practices account manager.

This article focuses on the (MSC) Practitioner Training Programme (PTP). This programme is to develop the healthcare science practitioner workforce, the work of which underpins the delivery of many healthcare science services.

This information is primarily aimed at service commissioners and workforce planners, however it is also an awareness raising tool for all in respect of a small profession that is often misunderstood and, in some cases, not fully recognised in terms of its importance.Two key facts about the Orthoptist profession:

•       they save lives and make a real and highly valuable difference to the patients they treat
•       they offer value for money services and can make a significant contribution to cost savings and the QIPP agenda

With a growing number of volunteers being used within NHS trusts to carry out a range of tasks (including some tasks within clinical areas) there is a need to understand what exactly volunteers do and the contribution they make to patient care and experience, as well as how they are managed to help deliver NHS services.