A new organisation called The Centre for Workforce Intelligence is being set up to assist with the movement of care away from hospitals and into the community, Health Minister Ann Keen announced today (29 March 2010).
The centre aims to help NHS and social care services plan their workforces around shifting resources to the frontline and delivering “people-centred care”, the minister said.
The decision to form this centre was made after a review into the future of the NHS workforce in 2008 highlighted the need for an organisation to provide leadership on the quality of workforce planning across the health and social care system.
The remit of the Centre for Workforce Intelligence is to promote best practice in workforce planning, to provide research and expert advice to NHS and social care planners, clinicians and commissioners, and to ensure that those involved in workforce planning contribute to the collection and use of high-quality data, analysis and modelling.
Peter Sharp, Director of Learning & Wellbeing at consulting and business service group Mouchel, has been appointed as the Chief Executive for the centre, which will be chaired by Dame Carol Black.
Health Minister Ann Keen said: “Planning and developing the workforce is essential to delivering care of the highest standard.
“As a nurse, I know that having the right numbers of doctors, nurses and social care workers means they can respond to the needs of their community and ensure that patients get high-quality and people-centred care.
“To make this happen we need to strengthen workforce planning at all levels of the NHS and social care system.
“The new Centre for Workforce Intelligence will provide an authoritative resource on workforce planning for national and local organisations promoting best practice, looking out for potential staffing issues and providing high-quality data.”
Mr Sharp said: “The centre will provide objective, robust and rigorous workforce intelligence to support the delivery of high-quality services.
“We will enable leaders, senior managers and clinicians to use this intelligence to develop the workforce in the short, medium and long-term.”
The centre will have a remit to work closely with SHAs, the Sector Skills Council, the Information Centre for Health and Social Care, the Professional Advisory Boards and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
