NHS England workforce plan fails to tackle staff shortages, say health leaders

Healthcare leaders have welcomed ambitions set out in an NHS workforce plan for England to improve staff wellbeing, but they expressed disappointment over a lack of commitment to new funding and more staff.

Despite having been promised by the end of 20191 the NHS People Plan was published on 30 July,2 after an interim workforce plan published in June 2019.3 A third workforce plan is also due after the government’s spending review has confirmed future NHS education and training budgets.

Speaking at the Royal College of Physicians in London on 30 July, England’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, said that the covid-19 pandemic had led to an improvement in facilities for staff. “Good food. Decent rest facilities. Someone to talk to about the most difficult experiences that frontline colleagues faced,” he said.

But he said that it should not have …