| 10 January 2025
Strategic workforce planning is a process that ensures organisations have the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles to meet their operational needs. It involves assessing current staffing capabilities, predicting future requirements, and implementing strategies to bridge gaps.
Integrated care systems (ICSs) bring together health providers, local authorities, and other partners to deliver seamless, person-centred care. By fostering collaboration, ICSs aim to improve outcomes, reduce inequalities, and deliver care closer to home. However, achieving these goals requires a workforce strategy that aligns with their integrated vision.
Strategic workforce planning bridges this gap by enabling ICSs to build and maintain a skilled, adaptable workforce ready to meet current and future challenges. This article will explain how strategic workforce planning can drive success for ICSs, drawing on practical examples already taking place in the sector.
Key factors driving success in ICSs
Collaborative workforce planning
This approach focusses on creating partnerships to address the shared needs and goals of services, breaking down silos between organisations to ensure workforce alignment.
Key strategies include:
- Conducting joint workforce analyses to assess capacity, skills, and demands, ensuring resources are allocated efficiently to meet shared objectives.
- Developing shared training programmes, ensuring consistency in skills development and addressing common workforce needs.
- Establishing effective communication channels between teams such as shared digital platforms.
These efforts foster an informed and engaged workforce, resulting in a more cohesive system. By having a more unified workforce, resources and expertise can be better shared and optimised, enabling seamless transitions between care settings. This alignment allows individuals to respond more effectively to patient needs, enhancing the quality and continuity of care.
An example of collaborative workforce planning can be seen in South East London ICS, which brought together 17 local partners to collectively address the health needs of 1.9 million residents in the region. Through shared efforts, they introduced robust workforce planning measures to ensure staffing levels kept pace with long-term service requirements, creating an integrated and collaborative workforce.
Practical and effective workforce solutions
Another strand of strategic workforce planning involves implementing practical and effective solutions by rethinking ways of working to develop actionable strategies.
One example is workforce modelling. Workforce modelling enables organisations to test scenarios through innovative work practices, new roles, and the adoption of emerging technologies.
By analysing workforce data, organisations can identify key factors such as the supply and demand for services and current or future skill gaps. This analysis guides efforts to ensure the right people with the appropriate skills are positioned where and when they are most needed.
To respond to these insights, organisations might redesign roles, tailoring them to meet specific service needs efficiently and effectively. Another approach is integrating innovations, such as digital tools and multi-disciplinary training, helping teams deliver proactive care.
These strategies are particularly valuable for ICSs, helping to streamline operations, reduce delays and improve the quality and proactivity of patient care. They can also alleviate burnout by distributing workload more evenly and utilising skills more effectively.
A practical example of these solutions in action is the Berkshire West Integrated Care Partnership. By applying the Skills for Health Six Steps Methodology, they validated their workforce plan, uncovering opportunities to redesign roles and introduce new skill sets. This approach supported the partnership’s goal of delivering care closer to home, reducing inefficiencies, and improving patient outcomes.
Planning for the long term
Planning for the long term is another example of strategic workforce planning, ensuring that staffing strategies are sustainable and align with the broader goals of the organisation and population.
Long-term planning can be achieved through workforce analytics, which provide data-driven insights into demographic trends, workforce supply, and population health needs. These insights guide organisations in identifying areas of focus and strategy, helping them prepare for the future.
Scenario planning and predictive modelling are also valuable tools. By simulating a range of potential future states, organisations can anticipate challenges and opportunities, as well as identify potential gaps or surpluses.
Adaptable frameworks, which can be updated regularly to include emerging skills or adjust role requirements, further support long-term planning. These frameworks enable organisations to respond effectively to evolving challenges, such as technological advancements or shifts in job roles, ensuring that the workforce remains aligned with future needs.
These strategies are particularly beneficial for ICSs, providing a resilient and future-proof workforce that can adapt to periods of change without compromising service quality. Additionally, they enable ICSs to align workforce capabilities with long-term health and care objectives, improving efficiency and sustainability.
A practical example of long-term workforce planning can be seen in the work of NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit with Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). By developing detailed workforce plans tailored to specific population needs, they equipped ICSs with actionable strategies to address future demands. These initiatives ensured adaptability to evolving scenarios, providing a foundation for sustainable healthcare delivery.
Summary
Strategic workforce planning can help drive success for ICSs. By fostering collaborative workforce planning, ensuring practical and effective workforce solutions, and planning for the long term, ICSs can overcome staffing challenges and deliver improved care.
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