Minimise Redundancies Or Jeopardise Future Health Of NHS, Cautions NHS Employers Report, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 05 Nov 2009 - 0:00 PST

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Redundancies on a mass scale are a blunt and expensive tool that could threaten the NHS' recovery from recession as it seeks to make savings of about £20 billion by 2014. At its annual conference today NHS Employers encouraged NHS workforce leaders to commit to exploring a full range of alternative options and innovations before considering staff redundancies.

'Leading the NHS workforce through to recovery', which outlines these challenges, was launched today at 'NHS Employers annual conference: Leading Workforce Thinking 2009'. Sian Thomas, director of NHS Employers, presented the report and says:

"NHS leaders must explore every alternative before making redundancies to ensure the NHS remains in good health as the economy improves. It needs to retain a skilled workforce to ensure that quality patient care does not suffer as we overcome the consequences of significantly reduced funding.

"The NHS must avoid this impacting on morale and increased workload pressures in order to improve patient safety and continue to improve clinical outcomes at the front line level. Indeed Chief Executives are concerned that the NHS currently lacks enough staff with the right talent and skills to lead it through recovery."

The report warns of examples where this problem has occurred before, for example during cuts to the number of nurse training positions in 2005/6. These cuts have resulted in a shortfall of available nursing staff now with gaps leading to an increase this year in international recruitment.

Sian Thomas adds:

"The challenge for NHS leaders is to resist redundancies on a large scale and to make the most of natural turnover, eliminate waste and duplication and increase productivity. The NHS has shown it can innovative to save money but the spread of improvement is not yet occurring quickly enough We have identified many measures for NHS leaders to consider, each of which may help save costs while increasing their ability to retain and develop their staff. These measures in themselves may not be enough to achieve the challenge, but together with service transformation will be key to delivering it."

An ageing population, rising public expectations and the impact of the recession on unemployment will increase demands on the NHS. At the same time increasing retirement among ageing NHS staff has the benefit of helping reduce staff levels without redundancies but the disadvantage of removing vital experience that is of great benefit to patients.

The report recommends that NHS leaders use its new 'employer's checklist for economic recovery'. This makes ten recommendations including:

(1) Start planning now. NHS trust and Primary Care Trust boards need to put a workforce strategy in place that takes a long-term view of both immediate and upcoming challenges.

(2) Think staff engagement. Understand the issues and concerns for your workforce. Be honest and open about the scale of the challenge with staff.

(3) Take a whole system approach. Eliminating waste and redesign services are delivering results. Having a well understood approach to managing change and a strong improvement method is key to transforming services.

(4) Make the most of levers already in the system. National pay contracts and the NHS Pension Choice exercise offer tools and/or opportunities to drive quality improvement and save money.

(5) Work with partners in your wider community. Local Authorities, other public service employers, JobCenre Plus, schools, colleges and community services can benefit from collaboration, sharing resources, understanding each other's needs and considering their social responsibility as trainers and employers.

Source
NHS Employers