The goals of the English HWF planning system are explicit and set out in the “Mandate from the Government to Health Education England” and the “Education Outcomes Framework”. In particular, the latter define the expected outcomes while the first makes explicit the related operational objectives (both short term and long term).
Some examples
Expected outcomes
On the domain named “Competent and Capable Staff”, whose definition is “There are sufficient health staff educated and trained, aligned to service and changing care needs, to ensure that people are cared for by staff who are properly inducted, trained and qualified, who have the required knowledge and skills to do the jobs service needs, whilst working effectively in a team”, the expected outcome are:
- “organisations anticipate the numbers and capabilities of the workforce they will need for the future and demonstrate how they work singly and collectively to meet these needs”;
- “high quality care will not be compromised by the lack of available staff with the necessary competence, capability and performance”.
Operational objectives
In the domain of “Competent and Capable Staff”, two scopes were defined:
- ensuring effective workforce planning through close work with the LETBs;
- delivery of a workforce to meet the changing needs of the service, with particular focus on preventative measures and primary care.
Moreover, a set of expected deliverables (output) were described, i.e. “Significant reduction in the number of roles on the Shortage Occupation List by March 2015”, or “Delivery of a 5-year consolidated workforce plan by Autumn 2013”.
In 2014 the HWF planning targets have been updated and detailed.