College joins over 100 health organisations in signing open letter to the Prime Minister urging him to strengthen workforce planning Health and Care Bill
29 Mar 2022
College joins over 100 health organisations in signing open letter to the Prime Minister urging him to strengthen workforce planning Health and Care Bill.

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow has joined over 100 health and care organisations, in supporting the #StrengthInNumbers campaign and signed a letter to the Prime Minister urging him to accept the Lords’ amendment to the Health and Care Bill that will guarantee independent assessments of how many health and social care staff we need now and in future.
Our College has prioritised Workforce and Wellbeing and will continue to speak up for the profession in this key area as we push for renewal of the NHS.
A copy of the letter is below:
Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson MP, Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing to ask you and your government to accept the amendment on workforce planning when the Health and Care Bill returns to the House of Commons.
The pandemic has reinforced what we’ve long known: the NHS and social care need more staff. The amendment that was passed on 3 March – with support from cross-party Peers, the Health and Social Care Select Committee and 100 health and care organisations – means that the Bill now provides a mechanism for attaining clarity about the number of doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and social care staff we need now and into the future. Without it, we will continue to fly blind on NHS and social care staffing.
Lords’ amendment 29 will give a national, independent view of how many health and social care staff are needed to keep pace with projected demand over the next 5, 10 and 20 years. Our over 100 organisations believe this data is crucial to begin putting the workforce back on a sustainable footing, support more strategic spending decisions and provide long-term cost savings. Recovery of our health and care services will be fatally undermined without a comprehensive workforce strategy that addresses endemic staff shortages by projecting future demand and supply.
There are significant challenges facing our country including an ageing population, more people reliant on long-term care, and long-standing regional and specialty shortages. A national independent picture of projected staffing supply relative to projected demand will help to ensure the NHS and social care systems are prepared for the future. Staff shortages are a false economy. The current mismatch between supply and demand is leading in part to significant spend on locum and agency staff. In 2019/20, £6.2bn was spent on agency and bank staff in hospitals in England. Strategic increases in substantive staff would reduce reliance on locums and provide cost savings in the long-run. These independent assessments are central to enabling the NHS to make the best use of public money.
Regularly published assessments will also enable the health and care system to make best use of new and emerging roles in health and social care, improving efficiency by ensuring staff are working to the top of their band and that their practice is informed by the latest evidence. These assessments will be based on current trajectories of demand given the rise in certain health conditions, demographic changes and the rising use of technology. By understanding the staffing numbers required to meet projected demand, the assessments will also provide robust data to inform decisions on wider policy measures – such as investment in prevention and public health strategies – which reduce avoidable pressure on health and care services.
The non-legislative approach taken so far has not worked. There are chronic vacancies across health and care, and previous NHS and Health Education England workforce frameworks have failed to set out how many staff are needed to keep pace with demand. Without transparency on numbers, progress cannot be made. Staff in post are under huge pressure as they pick up the additional workload created by staffing vacancies. We recognise that there are record numbers of staff working in the health service – but demand is at a record high too, with 6.1 million people currently on NHS waiting lists. Vacancies are rising too and now match pre-pandemic highs, with over 110,000 full-time equivalent vacancies in the NHS. Overstretched staff have significant implications both for safety and quality of care for the public and retention of staff.
Without this amendment, the Health and Care Bill will fail to address the biggest challenge facing the NHS and social care system: staffing shortages. The money from the National Insurance rise this April to help reduce pressure on the NHS and support social care reform will only go so far if there are not enough staff to deliver care to those on waiting lists or accessing social care services. Workforce is the limiting factor in your government’s plans for health and care. We urge you to carefully consider the intention of this amendment and ensure it stands part of the final Act.
We look forward to your response to this letter and would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss this further.
Yours sincerely
Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
Action Kidney Cancer
Age UK
Alzheimer’s Society
Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland
Association of British Clinical Diabetologists
Association of British Neurologists
Association of Cancer Physicians
Asthma and Lung UK
Bliss
Blood Cancer UK
Bowel Cancer UK
Brain Tumour Charity
Brain Tumour Research
brainstrust – the brain cancer people
Breast Cancer Now
British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians
British Association of Dermatologists
British Association of Sexual Health & HIV
British Cardiovascular Society
British Geriatrics Society
British Heart Foundation
British Medical Association (BMA)
British Nuclear Medicine Society
British Pharmacological Society
British Psychological Society
British Society for Haematology
British Society for Rheumatology
British Thoracic Society
Cancer Awareness for Teens & Twenties
Cancer Black Care
Cancer Research UK
Cancer52
Centre for Mental Health
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
Children with Cancer UK
Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group
Clinical Genetics Society
CLL Support
Crohn’s & Colitis UK
Diabetes UK
Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Faculty of Physician Associates
Faculty of Public Health
Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare
Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine
Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust
Health Foundation
Independent Age
Intensive Care Society
Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust
Kidney Cancer UK
Macmillan Cancer Support
Marie-Curie
Medical Schools Council
Mencap
Mental Health Foundation
Mesothelioma UK
Mind
Myeloma UK
National Voices
NHS Confederation
NHS Providers
Nuffield Trust
One Cancer Voice
Ovacome
Ovarian Cancer Action
Pancreatic Cancer UK
Parkinson’s UK
Prostate Cancer UK
Rethink Mental Illness
Royal College of Anaesthetists
Royal College of Emergency Medicine
Royal College of General Practitioners
Royal College of Midwives
Royal College of Nursing
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Royal College of Occupational Therapists
Royal College of Ophthalmologists
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
Royal College of Pathologists
Royal College of Physicians
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
Royal College of Psychiatrists
Royal College of Radiologists
Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Sarcoma UK
Society for Acute Medicine
Society for Endocrinology
Solving Kids Cancer
Stroke Association
Sue Ryder
Target Ovarian Cancer
Teenage Cancer Trust
The King’s Fund
The Richmond Group
UK Kidney Association
UNISON
Young Lives vs Cancer
Young Minds.
CC. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
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