NHS Long Term Workforce Plan
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (NHS England, 2023)
The plan clearly articulates the continued drive to develop the advancing practice workforce as part of the multi-disciplinary team, recognising the impact these roles can have not only on improving patient care, but also increasing the number of senior clinical decision makers within the NHS to improve productivity and increase capacity. It acknowledges the role advanced practitioners will have in supporting and driving service transformation and developing new and innovative ways of working. It also recognises the importance of retaining our experienced senior staff and enabling effective career development where staff feel valued, entrusted and have the knowledge, skills and ability to provide high quality, safe, effective care for our patients and their families.
The growth outlined is ambitious, with 5,000 new practitioners a year starting on advanced practice training pathways by 2028, increasing to 6,300 by 2031. As a Faculty we remain focused and driven to support the development and implementation of advanced practice roles, and we will continue to work collaboratively with our partners to support the growth outlined within the plan.
As a Faculty we are passionate about developing a multi-professional advanced practice workforce that meets the needs of the people that we serve across our region, and we will continue to showcase the significant impact trainee, advanced and consultant practitioners have on delivering high quality patient care. We also want to ensure we develop a culture where our advanced practitioners’ experience, expertise and professionalism is recognised and valued. As a region we have made significant progress over the past two years in gaining recognition for our advanced practice workforce, which has only been achieved with the support and collaborative working with all of our partner organisations and we look forward to continuing to work with our systems to drive the advancing practice agenda forward.
Current priorities
The east of England Faculty for Advancing Practice key priorities includes:
- Providing regional leadership around the advancing practice national programme to drive change at a local level, ensuring that advanced practice is embedded across all agendas and enabling functions, e.g., apprenticeships, business and workforce intelligence, commissioning and finance etc.
- Provide greater connectivity across the health and social care system and across all relevant professions to improve the understanding, value and innovation that advancing practice roles can bring to deliver quality care and improved service provision for patients.
- Ensure robust governance structures for advanced practice are embedded within organisations and across Integrated Care Systems to enable safe and effective practice.
- Lead and promote advanced practitioners as part of workforce solutions, supporting organsiations and Integrated Care Boards to undertake effective workforce planning that includes advanced and consultant practitioner roles.
- Ensure quality education and training is available by supporting our regional Higher Education Institutes obtain advanced practice programme accreditation, identify training demand and support programme development.
- Provide quality assurance that NHSE advanced practice funding equates to an increase in the regional advanced practice workforce.
- Review and support the provision of regional multi-professional supervsion capacity and support our trainees and monitor their progress.