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Strength in Numbers - stronger workforce planning in the health and care bill

See the latest information and briefing on workforce planning in the Health and Care Bill.

A coalition of 100 health and care organisations – including the Royal College of Physicians – calling for stronger provisions on workforce planning in the Health and Care Bill has issued a briefing ahead of report stage in the House of Lords in March 2022.

You can download a briefing and see the full list of organisations in the coalition at the bottom of the page.

Throughout the passage of the bill, the coalition has called for an amendment to mandate the regular publication of independent assessments of current and future workforce numbers. Government has so far dismissed amendments on workforce planning on the basis that ‘Framework 15’, commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), will look at the drivers of workforce supply and demand and ‘help to ensure’ we have the right numbers of staff. But Framework 15 was first published in 2014, last updated in 2017, and yet there is no agreed, publicly available assessment of workforce numbers now nor into the future.

The coalition of 100 organisations is encouraging peers to speak in support of and vote for the amendment to Clause 35 tabled by Baroness Cumberlege. The amendment would give a national, independent view of how many health and social care staff are needed to keep pace with projected patient demand over the next 5, 10 and 20 years. Without it, the bill will fail to address the biggest challenge facing the NHS and social care – staffing shortages and pressures.

Who's involved

Organisations

  1. Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
  2. Age UK
  3. Alzheimer’s Society
  4. Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland
  5. Association of British Clinical Diabetologists
  6. Association of British Neurologists
  7. Association of Cancer Physicians
  8. Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation
  9. Bliss
  10. Blood Cancer UK
  11. Bowel Cancer UK
  12. Brain Tumour Charity
  13. Brain Tumour Research
  14. Brain's Trust
  15. Breast Cancer Now
  16. British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians
  17. British Association of Dermatologists
  18. British Association of Sexual Health & HIV
  19. British Cardiovascular Society
  20. British Geriatrics Society
  21. British Heart Foundation
  22. British Medical Association (BMA)
  23. British Nuclear Medicine Society
  24. British Pharmacological Society
  25. British Society for Haematology
  26. British Society for Rheumatology
  27. British Thoracic Society
  28. Cancer Awareness for Teens & Twenties
  29. Cancer Black Care
  30. Cancer Research UK
  31. Cancer52
  32. Centre for Mental Health
  33. Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
  34. Children with Cancer UK
  35. Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group
  36. Clinical Genetics Society
  37. CLL Support
  38. Crohn's & Colitis UK
  39. Diabetes UK
  40. Faculty of Dental Surgery
  41. Faculty of Physician Associates
  42. Faculty of Public Health
  43. Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare
  44. Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine
  45. Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust
  46. Health Foundation
  47. Independent Age
  48. Intensive Care Society
  49. Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust
  50. Kidney Cancer Support Network
  51. Kidney Cancer UK
  52. Macmillan Cancer Support
  53. Marie-Curie
  54. Medical Schools Council
  55. Mencap
  56. Mental Health Foundation
  57. Mesothelioma UK
  58. Mind
  59. Myeloma UK
  60. National Voices
  61. NHS Confederation
  62. NHS Providers
  63. Nuffield Trust
  64. One Cancer Voice
  65. Ovacome
  66. Ovarian Cancer Action
  67. Pancreatic Cancer UK
  68. Parkinson's UK
  69. Prostate Cancer UK
  70. Rethink Mental Illness
  71. Royal College of Anaesthetists
  72. Royal College of Emergency Medicine
  73. Royal College of General Practitioners
  74. Royal College of Midwifery
  75. Royal College of Nursing​
  76. Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
  77. Royal College of Ophthalmologists
  78. Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
  79. Royal College of Pathologists
  80. Royal College of Physicians​
  81. Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
  82. Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh
  83. Royal College of Psychiatrists
  84. Royal College of Radiologists
  85. Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh
  86. Royal College of Surgeons in England
  87. Sarcoma UK
  88. Society for Acute Medicine
  89. Society for Endocrinology
  90. Solving Kids Cancer
  91. Stroke Association
  92. Sue Ryder
  93. Target Ovarian Cancer
  94. Teenage Cancer Trust
  95. The King's Fund
  96. The Richmond Group
  97. UK Kidney Association
  98. UNISON
  99. Young Lives vs Cancer
  100. Young Minds