The Health and Social Care Committee has launched a new inquiry
to examine workforce burnout across the NHS and social care. It
will consider increased pressures brought by Covid-19 and the
resilience of services to cope with high levels
of staff stress. NHS Providers has reported that 92% of trusts were
concerned about burnout among their staff.
MPs are calling for evidence to assess the impacts of workforce
burnout on a range of areas from service delivery to the social
care sectors. They will also focus on the government’s
workforce planning, including measures set out in the NHS People
Plan so far, and assess the effectiveness of the Plan
to deliver on staff numbers expected to be
required across medical and social
care professions, and those in training in
order to meet future demands for patient care will also be
assessed.
The absence of an equivalent workforce plan for
social care and how parity with the NHS could be achieved will
also be considered. A separate HSC inquiry is being carried out
into social care’s funding and workforce.
Health and Social Care Committee Chair Rt Hon MP said:
“The resilience of NHS and social care staff to deliver care
during the Covid pandemic has been tested to the limits. That so
many staff were willing to risk their personal safety to do so is
testimony to the commitment and dedication of the workforce.
“Our objective is to produce a report that shows what levels of
staffing in health and social care are sufficient to avoid
burnout and meet future challenges. That means we need a rigorous
assessment of the overall numbers that will be needed to deliver
services over a ten year period, and how many people we should be
training in order to meet that target. It’s disappointing that
the recently announced People Plan has not yet provided this.
“We’ll be looking carefully at NHS and social care measures that
would not only protect staff from pressures that predate the
Covid crisis but, crucially, address new challenges we’re facing
as a result of it.”
ENDS
TERMS OF REFERENCE
The Committee invites written submissions addressing any or all
of the following points:
· How resilient was the NHS and social care workforce under
pre-COVID-19 operating conditions, and how might that resilience
be strengthened in the future?
· What has the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic been on
resilience, levels of workforce stress, and burnout across the
NHS and social care sectors?
· What is the current scale of workforce burnout across NHS and
social care? How does it manifest, how is it assessed, and what
are its causes and contributing factors? To what extent are NHS
and care staff able to balance their working and personal lives?
· What are the impacts of workforce burnout on service delivery,
staff, patients and service users across the NHS and social care
sectors?
· What long term projections for the future health and social
care workforce are available, and how many more staff are
required so that burnout and pressure on the frontline are
reduced? To what extent are staff establishments in line with
current and future resilience requirements?
· To what extent are there sufficient numbers of NHS and social
care professionals in training for service and resilience
planning? On what basis are decisions made about the supply and
demand for professionals in training?
· Will the measures announced in the People Plan so far be enough
to increase resilience, improve working life and productivity,
and reduce the risk of workforce burnout across the NHS, both now
and in the future?
· What further measures will be required to tackle and mitigate
the causes of workforce stress and burnout, and what should be
put in place to achieve parity for the social care workforce?
Evidence should be submitted to the Health and Social Care
Committee’s inquiry page by Friday 4 September.
Further information:
Committee membership:
Rt Hon MP (Chair) (Conservative, South West Surrey); (Conservative, Peterborough), (Labour, West Lancashire), Dr (Conservative, Vale of Clwyd), Dr (Conservative, Bosworth),
(Scottish National Party, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath),
(Labour, Worsley and Eccles South), (Labour, Coventry North West), (Labour, Luton North), (Conservative, Watford),
(Conservative, Sevenoaks).
