ARI 3: shaping and supporting the health and social care workforce of the future
Research objective: Research to optimise a public health, NHS, social care and wider health workforce that is effectively structured, trained, deployed and supported to deliver future effective and efficient models of healthcare which meet the needs of the UK’s ageing population.
Priority research topics: Developing future models of healthcare which effectively and efficiently meet the changing needs of the UK population. Developing, evaluating and understanding how to implement interventions to enable a diverse health and care workforce to deliver world-class care while addressing the current recruitment, retention and wellbeing issues such as:
- understanding the barriers to recruiting and retaining staff in the NHS and social care and identifying solutions including supporting wellbeing
- identifying how to structure the workforce to meet future health needs and how to drive cultural and behavioural change within organisations
- developing and evaluating interventions to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of staff (for example, skills-mix, task-shifting and service integration)
- developing and evaluating technology-assisted workforce solutions to reduce burden on staff while maintaining patient outcomes (for example, diagnoses assisted by artificial intelligence, robotics to support surgery and care, remote monitoring of patients including hospital at home and virtual wards)
Background
4.3% of the UK population is expected to be aged 85 or over by 2045. As healthy life expectancy has not increased at the same rate, more years are now being spent in poor health, driving demand for health and social care services.
The health and social care workforce are struggling to meet this increased demand. For example, the overall vacancy rate in adult social care was 10.7% in 2021 to 2022, while NHS vacancy rates were 11.9% in September 2021 compared to the labour market average of 4.2%. Staff turnover in adult social care was 29% in 2021 to 2022 with fewer people joining the workforce each year. The Health Foundation recently identified an overall workforce supply-demand gap of around 103,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) posts across the NHS and general practice in 2021 to 2022 (around 7% of estimated FTE workforce demand) and a 1 in 4 shortfall in GP and general practice nurse posts by 2030 to 2031.
Research into new and more efficient models of care with a focus on prevention, combined with understanding how the health and social care workforce can be trained and supported to deliver them, are required to deliver high quality care more efficiently.
Next steps
See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-of-health-areas-of-research-interest/ for more information.
Source
This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:
Topics
Related UKRI funded projects
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HEALTHIER WORKING LIVES AND AGEING FOR WORKERS IN THE CARE SECTOR: DEVELOPING CAREERS, ENHANCING CONTINUITY, PROMOTING WELLBEING (HWL)
It is generally accepted that being in good quality, safe work is beneficial for one's physical and mental wellbeing. If this is the case, being able to work healthily and happily for longer would be significant step tow...
Funded by: ISCF
Why might this be relevant?
Addresses the challenges of recruitment, retention, and wellbeing in the care sector, focusing on workforce development and support.
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The Care Life Cycle: Responding to the Health and Social Care Needs of an Ageing Society
The UK's population is ageing, and this presents a major problem for government since older people are the major users of health and social care services. As well as increasing the demand for care, population ageing is a...
Funded by: EPSRC
Why might this be relevant?
Focuses on understanding the complexities of health and social care systems in an ageing society, but does not directly address the workforce challenges mentioned in the question.
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Extending Working Lives in the NHS: Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects
The proposed research, a case study of the management of employment change in the NHS, is advanced against the backdrop of far-reaching changes in the UK state pension age and the abolition of the mandatory retirement ag...
Funded by: MRC
Why might this be relevant?
Investigates the implications of an ageing workforce on working-life longevity and performance within the NHS, but does not fully address the recruitment, retention, and wellbeing challenges mentioned in the question.