The publication of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) heralds the start of the biggest recruitment drive in health service history, but also of an ongoing programme of strategic workforce planning – something which is unique amongst other health care systems with national scale. It sets out a strategic direction for the long term, as well as concrete and pragmatic action to be taken locally, regionally and nationally in the short to medium term to address current workforce challenges. Those actions fall into three clear priority areas:
- Train: significantly increasing education and training to record levels, as well as increasing apprenticeships and alternative routes into professional roles, to deliver more doctors and dentists, more nurses and midwives, and more of other professional groups, including new roles designed to better meet the changing needs of patients and support the ongoing transformation of care.
- Retain: ensuring that we keep more of the staff we have within the health service by better supporting people throughout their careers, boosting the flexibilities we offer our staff to work in ways that suit them and work for patients, and continuing to improve the culture and leadership across NHS organisations.
- Reform: improving productivity by working and training in different ways, building broader teams with flexible skills, changing education and training to deliver more staff in roles and services where they are needed most, and ensuring staff have the right skills to take advantage of new technology that frees up clinicians’ time to care, increases flexibility in deployment, and provides the care patients need more effectively and efficiently.
Taking these actions will allow the NHS to make sustainable progress on our core priorities for patients, such as improving access to primary and community care, providing safe and timely urgent and emergency care, and continuing to reduce the COVID-19 backlog for elective care. The government has committed to the Plan and the investment to provide the additional education and training places we need over the next five years. Aligning to the aspirations of the LTWP is the NHS Long Term Plan which aims to improve health services across the system with a focus on helping everyone to stay well and healthy throughout their lives and where possible, preventing ill health.
There’s never been a better time to choose a career in general practice. New career opportunities are emerging in general practice as people come together to work as part of more vibrant, diverse local teams of experts in physiotherapy, pharmacy, nursing, mental health, social prescribing, care of the elderly and more, in a range of settings. Find out more about each Primary Care Role below:
Supervision
NHS England have developed Supervision guidance for primary care network multidisciplinary teams which can be accessed
here.
Supervision can mean many things to different health care professionals.
This guide from Kent, Surrey, and Sussex Primary Care School
draws together the supervision requirements for learners in primary care and clarifies the requirements for specific learners and employees in specific roles.
Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme
The aim of the
Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme
(ARRS) is to provide funding for 26,000 additional roles within Primary Care Networks (PCNs), to create bespoke multi-disciplinary teams.
Primary Care Networks assess the needs of their local population and, working with local community services, make support available to people where it is most needed. The new roles which are currently funded via the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme are made up of a combination of Allied Healthcare Professionals AHPs, Personalised Care roles amongst others.
Insurance
It is your responsibility to ensure that you have appropriate professional indemnity insurance. Clinical negligence is typically provided by your employer, and for NHS work by NHS Resolution, but may not include professional or legal advice or representation should this be required, including for example support when called to a Coroner’s court, or in any investigation of your practice by a regulator or HR processes etc.
Many professional associations recommend the individual has their own professional indemnity insurance which may be included as part of your membership benefits. If you are unsure, please contact your professional association directly. Professional clinical and managerial indemnity is available from a number of independent sources, and it is possible that your employer may have made provision for this on your behalf – but you must be certain that you have adequate cover in place.
