- 17 June 2022
- 8 min read
The NHS People Plan Is Important - Our Academy Supports It
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The Nurses.co.uk Academy helps the NHS and Healthcare organisations deliver on employee support promises and increase workforce retention.
The UK's healthcare workforce is critically short-staffed and has been for a number of years.
Since the launch of The NHS Long Term Plan in January 2019, workforce has been one of its key focuses.
The NHS's goal for its workforce, rolled into The People Plan, is clear.
Taken simply as a guide for how any organisation should invest in and support its staff, it is sensible and vital.
We have a vision for how organisations can retain staff.
We have combined our vision with the simple message embedded in The People Plan to help organisations support, develop and therefore retain their workforce. Contact us to organise a call if you would like to find out more - or read about the Academy here.
We Need This Now More Than Ever
During Covid 19 “NHS England faced a workforce shortfall of over 115,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, with projections this will double by 2025/26 and exceed 475,000 by 2033/34." (NHS SBS, 2022)
With such stark figures highlighting the scale of the NHS staffing crisis, the critical and pressing need for NHS trusts to do more to retain their existing employees is clear. - NHS SBS
Estimates from Public Health England put the cost to the NHS of staff absence due to poor health at £2.4bn a year – accounting for around £1 in every £40 of the total budget.
This figure is before the cost of agency staff to fill in gaps, as well as the cost to public health, is taken into account.
For more data on the impact of high turnover in NHS healthcare read our report.
What Is The NHS People Plan?
First published in July 2020 by NHS England, the NHS People Plan aims to explore how NHS staff can operate differently. It hopes for a "compassionate and inclusive" workforce.

The plan sets out actions to support transformation across the NHS - from 'We Are the NHS', March 2021
The People Plan embraces another NHS vision - a set of goals for their staff experience, The People Promise:

We see The People Promise as a contract between leaders, people professionals and the frontline workforce to embed shared values with the aim of raising "the experience of working in the NHS" for all staff.
A worthy and needed ambition. And not just for the NHS.
The 8 Themes of the NHS' HR & Organisational Development Vision for 2030 (published 22 November 2021) are vital intentions for any organisation that believes in the value of supporting its employees:
• Prioritising wellbeing
• Providing a great employee experience
• Ensuring inclusion and belonging
• Supporting its People Professionals
• Responding to new challenges and opportunities
• New ways of working and delivering care
• Harnessing everyone's talents
Values every organisation would agree with.
We've designed The Nurses.co.uk Academy around these values.
Not just for the NHS, but all organisations that believe in the long-term support of its staff.
These solutions are for the clinical frontline workforce as well as the people professionals who support them.
About this contributor
Nurses.co.uk Founder
I launched Nurses.co.uk (and subsequently Socialcare.co.uk, Healthjobs.co.uk and Healthcarejobs.ie) in 2008. 500 applications are made every day via our jobs boards, helping to connect hiring organisations recruiting for clinical, medical, care and support roles with specialist jobseekers. Our articles, often created by our own audience, shine a light on the career pathways in healthcare, and give a platform to ideas and opinions around their work and jobs.
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Log In Subscribe to commentTracie Mckelvie
Tracie Mckelvie
2 years agoThis is a really interesting article that captures my own personal, and professional outlook on workplace health and wellbeing; I ... read more
This is a really interesting article that captures my own personal, and professional outlook on workplace health and wellbeing; I shall be making contact to explore further.
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Thank you Tracie. I look forward to hearing from you.