The evaluation by the panel of independent experts considered how
the government had progressed overall against seven commitments
it has made in three policy areas across the NHS and social care:
planning for the workforce; building a skilled workforce and
wellbeing at work, including reducing high rates of bullying in
the NHS.
Key findings
On workforce planning
Experts found no evidence that targets for staff numbers were
linked with patient and service need and little evidence of
social care workforce planning at a local or national level.
According to many stakeholders the Panel heard from, the lack of
workforce planning by the government is having a negative impact
on recruitment and retention in both sectors.
On building a skilled workforce
Government unable to give a breakdown of spending for social care
to demonstrate how the extra £1 billion committed annually was
spent on additional social care staff, better infrastructure,
technology, and facilities.
Wellbeing at work
Rates of bullying, harassment and abuse in the NHS remain
“concerningly high” with more than 1 in 4 NHS staff experiencing
at least one incident of bullying in the preceding 12 months. NHS
estimates that bullying costs over £2 billion a year however
investment in tackling it falls woefully short for the scale of
the task.
See table on pages 11-13
of the Expert Panel Report for full details.
Expert Panel's Chair comment
Professor Dame Jane Dacre, Chair of the Expert Panel, said:
“We could not give the government any higher than an ‘inadequate’
rating on its overall progress in meeting its own targets set for
the NHS and social care workforce. We were unable to rate
progress on any of the individual commitments we evaluated as
good.”
“Rates of bullying in the NHS are far too high, and we found
measures to tackle the problem were either inadequate or require
improvement.
“Worryingly, our evaluation found that overall progress on all
the government commitments we looked at which involved social
care, was inadequate.
“In terms of learning how better to support staff, the government
has underestimated the complexity of the fragmented delivery
model in the social care sector and failed to put a mechanism in
place to listen to the their views.”
Health and Social Care's Committee Expert Panel
The Expert Panel is chaired by Professor Dame Jane
Dacre, Professor of Medical Education at University
College London, a consultant physician and rheumatologist at
Whittington Health in London, and former President of the Royal
College of Physicians.
Core members: Sir Robert Francis QC; Professor ; ; Professor Stephen
Peckham.
Specialist members on workforce: Professor Carol Atkinson,
Professor Shereen Hussein, Professor Alison Leary and Professor
Jill Manthorpe.
