National Covid-19 Workforce Survey launched to understand future NHS, health & care sector skills needs
@SkillsforHealth are launching a national Covid-19 Workforce Survey to help understand the critical skills required to rebuild a sustainable, productive, and flexible health and care workforce for the future.
Covid-19 has had a significant impact on every corner of the UK. Every community within our society and every sector across our economy has faced unprecedented challenges. Now, more than ever, it is vital we learn from employers and staff, just how much the pandemic has impacted our health and care workforce.
Jon Parry, Head of Research, Skills for Health says: “We are committed to our core mission of helping employers to develop a more skilled, productive and flexible workforce; this includes the provision of evidence based research and insights to support employer ambitions. We have continued to undertake this through these difficult times of Covid-19, and we are now seeking to understand some of the challenges facing employers and staff, as well as collecting examples of good practice responses to the crisis.”
Since the outbreak of coronavirus, our dedicated NHS, wider health, and social care professionals have had to adapt rapidly to meet the increased demand on services and the changing needs of patients. This has been a behemoth, collaborative effort, with our people making countless personal sacrifices, and showing their upmost compassion, tenacity and resilience, coupled with our organisations responding at pace, with transformational change at scale, and an inherent drive to deliver only the highest quality, life-saving care, when our nation has needed it most.
The complete impact on the workforce is still yet to be realised. It is imperative that evidence based research, and insights are sought to establish the extent Covid-19 has had on all areas of organisational life; from staff mental health and wellbeing, to recruitment and retention, leadership, organisational structure, to training, and skills development. In addition, the strategies, changes and innovative solutions that have been made out of necessity, must also be acknowledged, both in how they have helped to improve services and patient outcomes throughout the crisis, and why they must be maintained in the future.
Matt Lambert, Chief Executive Officer, The Federation for Industry Sector Skills & Standards says: “Maintaining and improving skills training will play a major part in rebuilding our health and care sector, our economy and repairing the public finances as we start to come out of the lock-down and return to work. I very much welcome this important survey by Skills for Health and encourage employers and staff to take part. Research into the challenges faced by employers and employees will help us to identify best practices and new ways to work productively and sustainably.”
The findings will be compiled into a report by Skills for Health’s research team to support employers not only focus on the short and medium-term priorities for recovering and restoring our health and care service provision but also form a thorough grasp on the longer-term development required to establish future ambitions for the system.
To do this, they need your voice.
Skills for Health need to hear your experiences and your reflections. Have your say and join the conversation by taking part in this vital survey today and contribute to national research into the workforce impact of Covid-19.
Jon Parry asks: “We would be very grateful if you could take part in this short survey which is aimed at gathering and sharing ideas and experiences. We will report our findings in due course, disseminating through our stakeholder networks and publishing on our website. Your participation will ensure that we are all able to contribute to rebuilding a sustainable workforce with the critical skills required post Covid-19.”
For every completed survey response, Skills for Health are donating 10p to NHS Charities Together, who continue to support NHS staff and volunteers caring for Covid-19 patients.
Please click here to take part
The survey is open until Tuesday 30th June 2020.
Responses