The NHS is facing an unprecedented workforce challenge. Demand is rising at the same time as jobs are becoming harder to fill. It’s estimated the health service – the country’s biggest employer – will need to expand from providing jobs for one in 17 people to employing one in 11 by 2036/37 to keep up with demand.
As well as tackling retention rates – 11.2% of hospital and community health staff left in the year to June 2023 – NHS leaders will also need to consider how to build the talent pipeline. News that applications to study nursing have fallen 26% over the past two years, for example, recently prompted the head of the Royal College of Nursing to write to the health secretary, warning of the “direct threat to the sustainability of the NHS”.
