The Year of the Health and Care Workers
2021 has been designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the International Year of Health and Care Workers (YHCW) in appreciation and gratitude for their unwavering dedication in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. NHS England (NHSE) is assisting the WHO in launching this year-long campaign, under the theme – Protect. Invest. Together.
As health systems respond to the ongoing pressure of COVID the workforce has never been more important – nor more stretched. The Year of the Health and Care Worker (YHCW) should be a turning point in our discussions about the long-term planning and investment in health and care workforces to support universal health coverage.
NHS England – Workforce Planning and Leadership Development Programme
NHS England (NHSE) is the strategic workforce body for England’s NHS, and is responsible for providing system-wide leadership and oversight of the NHS’ workforce planning, education, and training.
The WHO and NHSE are working in collaboration to develop the next generation of Human Resources for Health (HRH) system leaders, creating a lasting impact and strengthening health systems globally.
This programme was delivered in a series of four seminars and eight Action Learning Sets, presented by leaders in the field of workforce planning.
All seminars can be accessed by everyone.
NHSE also helped to facilitate eight Action Learning Set sessions through 2022, with up to 60 participants from eight low- and middle-income countries around the globe. This part of the programme aimed to bring together future influencers and leaders from all realms of the social, economic, and political spheres.
As part of the Year of the Health and Care Workers (YHCW) programme, NHS England (NHSE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) worked in collaboration to run four open access seminars. These are designed to help develop the next generation of Human Resources for Health (HRH) system leaders, creating a lasting impact and strengthening health systems globally.
Each of these seminars were also delivered in Russian. Please find the Russian recording on the relevant seminar’s webpage.
Quarterly Seminars
The first of these seminars was delivered in December 2021, and introduced systemic workforce planning to over 300 attendees from 42 countries worldwide. The panel included leaders in the workforce planning field from the WHO and NHSE. Further information and the session recording are available online.
The second of four seminars, delivered in March 2022, dove deeper into the key issues raised in Seminar One, specifically on the development of health systems and the challenge of responding to both short-term ‘shocks’ and longer-term trends. Further information and the session recording are available online.
Seminar three was held in July of 2022. It focused on recruitment and retention of nurses, doctors and other health professionals. Contributions were heard from those in several health systems and with differing experiences. The panellists discussed strategies to plan for these key professions, drivers of demand and the importance of sustainable planning. Further information and the session recording are available online.
The fourth seminar in our series, held in October 2022, looked at the importance of systemic workforce planning for strengthening the global health workforce. Our speakers for this session came from different countries and organisations, giving a multidimensional look on the topic. Further information and the session recording are available online.