Last month, nursing leaders from trusts from across the East of England came together to share and explore workforce strategies focussing on the importance of collaboration and sharing of best practice as a region rather than at individual trust level.
Here’s a glimpse into the day’s activities and key takeaways:
NHS England Welcome
We were thrilled that Ann Corbyn, Deputy Director of Workforce at NHS England (East of England) could attend, she opened the forum by stating her appreciation of the engagement and number of NHS providers in the room. Ann went on to challenge our NHS nursing colleagues to think radically about resourcing and the way in which they use agency – underlining the main theme of the day.
Breakout sessions exploring over price cap spend and off-framework agency removal
The event included two facilitated breakout groups which discussed and explored strategies to manage over price cap spend and off-framework removal.
The breakout sessions provided a trusted setting for attendees to discover effective workforce strategies employed by their neighbouring trusts. Facilitated by the NHS Workforce Alliance team, participants explored the common challenges and risks that are often barriers to change whilst also hearing about positive achievements and practical steps that can be replicated in their own trusts.
As well as catching up with our NHS colleagues and making new connections during the interactive workshops, lunch provided an opportunity for more informal networking among attendees.
The day concluded with closing remarks from David Downey, Assistant Director of Procurement. David reflected on the day’s insightful discussions. He highlighted key learnings from the forum and the wealth of ideas and practical actions that were explored in the session. Further exploration of these ideas will be followed-up in future sessions to ensure the momentum of collaboration and discovery achieved at the East of England NHS Workforce Alliance Nurses Forum continues beyond the April event.
“Thank you to all of our NHS colleagues who attended the nursing forum event, the day was a fantastic reminder of the collaborative regional approach to addressing workforce issues in our NHS. It was great to see high levels of engagement in the breakout sessions and the development of NHS Workforce Alliance led workstreams as an output from the day. There were a number of key themes that emerged from the session, but the clear winner is that we are all in this together and we have a dedicated NHS workforce who are committed to improving care for our patients,” David Downey, Assistant Director – Workforce.
A huge thank you to our NHS colleagues for attending the nursing forum.
Follow us on LinkedIn to hear about future nursing forums or if you would like to discuss any nursing workforce strategies with the NHS Workforce Alliance, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by emailing [email protected].