Workforce plan ‘light on detail’

The long-delayed NHS workforce plan is light on detail with serious gaps, say unions.

UNISON public services union head of health Sara Gorton said action on retention is key and called for “a fix for pay”. The pay review body “no longer works”, she added, and there must be a new way to ensure competitive wage rises, paid on time, “if there is to be an end to the industrial unrest plaguing the NHS”.

She added: “Plans to recruit more doctors and nurses cannot ignore the desperate NHS shortage of porters, cleaners, 999 call handlers and other support roles.” The lack of proposals to mend social care “is perhaps the biggest gap”.

The RCN nurses’ union said the plan was light on detail and “fails to acknowledge the investment needed in the existing workforce to make the vision a reality”. It also called for better financial support for nursing students.

The BMA doctors’ union said the government must enshrine as legislation its plans to expand the number of doctors in the NHS. It expressed concern about the role of untested medical apprenticeships and accelerated degrees.

Unite general union general secretary Sharon Graham said: “If there is not enough money to pay NHS staff a decent wage now, and transform current wage structures, then all the aspirations for more staffing in the training plan will fail to address the current crisis in the recruitment and retention of staff.”