The right workforce for the service you are trying to build
A workforce strategy is the answer to a set of questions the board has to be able to hold. What does the service need to be over the next five to ten years, what workforce would deliver it, what stands between us and that workforce, and what will we do about it? We help boards and executive teams answer those questions properly.
What we do
- Board-level workforce strategy - a five to ten year workforce strategy that a board can own, communicate and be accountable for.
- Strategic workforce reviews - an assessment of where you are, where you need to be, and the gap between the two.
- Future workforce design - new roles, career pathways, skill-mix changes and their implications for training, terms and conditions, and clinical governance.
- Workforce narratives - the story the strategy tells, in language a non-executive, a clinician and a chief finance officer can each follow.
- Strategy refresh and assurance - independent challenge and refresh for a workforce strategy that already exists.
- Workforce input to service strategy - the workforce lens on integrated care strategies, clinical strategies and place-based plans.
How we work
We start with the service strategy, not the org chart. Workforce decisions only make sense in the context of what the service is trying to be, and so does the workforce strategy. Our consultants spend time with clinical leaders, operational leaders and front-line teams before writing anything.
We hold both a five to ten year horizon and next year's operational reality in view at the same time. A workforce strategy that ignores either is not a strategy anyone can act on.
We write in plain English. A strategy that only makes sense to workforce specialists has not done its job.
What you can expect from us
- A senior workforce lead on every engagement, supported by consultants with clinical, operational and analytical backgrounds.
- Defensible, evidence-based positions - not opinions dressed as insight.
- A strategy that connects to delivery, not one that lives on a shelf.
- Independence. We will tell you the things the executive would rather not hear.
Typical engagements
- A twelve-week workforce strategy refresh for an ICB.
- A five-year workforce strategy for a group of trusts entering a formal collaboration.
- Independent challenge and refresh of an existing workforce strategy for a large mental health trust.
- The workforce narrative and strategic case for a new hospital programme.
Working on a workforce strategy?
We are happy to spend an hour helping you frame the strategic question, even if no engagement follows.