NHS could see more apprenticeships in ‘harder to recruit’ areas – Barclay

The much-anticipated NHS workforce plan is expected to be published soon.

Nurse and doctor apprentices could help boost staffing levels in areas where it is traditionally harder to recruit health workers in England, the Health Secretary has suggested (Aaron Chown/PA) (PA Wire)

Nurse and doctor apprentices could help boost staffing levels in areas where it is traditionally harder to recruit health workers in England, the Health Secretary has suggested.

It is expected that the much-anticipated NHS workforce plan will set out how to boost home-grown doctors and nurses to help stop overreliance on recruiting from overseas.

As part of this, it is expected that the number of medics trained via the apprenticeship route will be ramped up significantly.

A lot of the trusts that find it difficult to recruit in certain parts of the country... the more we can have apprenticeships, the more we can grow our own, I think that is hugely desirable and should be a key part of the long term workforce plan

Steve Barclay

Asked about the workforce plan, Steve Barclay told the Health and Social Care Committee: “A huge amount of work has gone into the long term workforce plan.

“I think it’s an extremely important document.

“It’s not simply and it would be a mistake to see it simply as a question of numbers.

“There’s a consensus that we need to grow our domestic supply, international recruitment has always been a part of the NHS throughout its history, always has a role to play, and particularly in the short term will continue to have a role to play.

“But that will, over the longer term become more competitive to sustain as other countries increasingly compete for the same workforce.

“So I think there’s a consensus that we need to grow our workforce in terms of our domestic numbers.

“But alongside that, I think we need to think about the wider skills mix, how do we have more career progression between roles?

“Secondly, I think there’s a lot more we can do around vocational training, so a lot of the trusts that find it difficult to recruit in certain parts of the country, the more we can have apprenticeships, the more we can grow our own, I think that is hugely desirable and should be a key part of the long term workforce plan.”

He added that the documents would also address issues with technology currently inhibiting the workforce but will also set out ambitions including the use of AI technology to free up clinicians time.

“So I think there’s a lot of opportunities within the plan above simply a question of a numbers game,” he said.

He added: “There’s a strong desire to get the document published, the NHS family as a whole is extremely keen for us to publish, the Chancellor committed in the autumn statement that we would do so this year.

“A lot of work has already gone in. But it’s right that for something that is so important, it is right that we also take our time on the document as part of that publication.”

Asked about chances of the document being published on or around the health service’s NHS 75th anniversary on July 5, Mr Barclay said “nine out of 10”.

The plan has been delayed a number of times and NHS commentators have repeatedly called for its publication to help set out how the Government and NHS intends to tackle NHS workforce shortages.

There are currently more than 112,000 full time equivalent vacancies in the NHS in England.

It has been suggested that some areas which find it hard to recruit clinicians are in remote locations or not routinely used for medical school placements so are unfamiliar to doctors in training.

And a Nuffield Trust report from 2022 highlighted how regional variation in NHS staffing levels can lead to “inequalities” in patients’ access to services.

Meanwhile Mr Barclay was also asked about the wave of strikes which have hit the NHS.

He said that the strikes were causing a “headwind” in the Government’s plans to cut the NHS waiting lists.

But he said there needs to be movement on “both sides” in the dispute with junior doctors, saying their current demand of a 35% rise was “not an affordable demand”.

Meanwhile, he said that he was keen to work with nurses on “other aspects” of the deal which was agreed by the NHS Staff Council for the one million staff on the Agenda for Change NHS contract.

On top of a revised pay offer, ministers agreed to look at a package of measures including nursing career progression and how to tackle violence against staff.

“From a department point of view, we are extremely keen to take forward the other elements of the deal… the RCN (Royal College of Nursing) was at the table as part of Staff Council throughout those negotiations and there were specific issues they raised in those negotiations that we took on board and then she recommended that to her own members.

“So we’re keen to get on with the other elements of the agreement and to do that in an extremely constructive spirit.”

Meanwhile, committee member Rachael Maskell, Labour MP for York, said that her constituents are facing a seven-year wait for dentistry care.

But Mr Barclay said that he could not commit to the date a dental recovery plan would be published.