Workforce: recruitment, training and retention in health and social care

Our response to the Health and Social Care Select Committee's inquiry

Our evidence in response to the Health and Social Care Select Committee's inquiry on workforce recruitment, training and retention in health and social care. 

The NHS and social care need long-term, national plans to recruit, train and retain staff, and support sustainable workforce growth. Both sectors have challenges with high vacancy rates and staff turnover, low pay, lack of career structure, and burnout among staff.

In our submission to this inquiry, we set out the Health Foundation’s assessment of the key issues related to the NHS and social care workforce, including:

• the correct balance of domestic and international recruitment in the short, medium and long term
• the principal factors driving staff to leave the health and social care sectors and what can be done to address them
• areas where recruitment and retention are a particular problem and what can be done to address these
• what should be included in the next iteration of the NHS People Plan, and a people plan for the social care sector
• implications for the development of the Health and Care Bill 2022.