University Alliance has submitted its response to the Department of Health and Social Care’s call for evidence on the 10-Year Workforce Plan.
As a mission group representing professional and technical universities with strong links to health and social care provision, our members play a critical role in training the future workforce and addressing skills shortages across the NHS and allied sectors.
Our response draws on extensive consultation with members, including health faculty leaders, workforce planners, and placement coordinators.
Key messages from our response:
We are calling on the government to:
- Expand and diversify routes into health careers. Flexible pathways, including degree apprenticeships and blended learning, are essential to widen participation and meet workforce demand. Investment in apprenticeships and funding reform that reflects the actual cost of delivery will be necessary.
- Invest in clinical placement capacity. Sustainable growth in health education depends on coordinated investment in placement infrastructure and support for practice educators.
- Recognise the contribution of professional and technical universities. Our institutions deliver high-quality, practice-based education at scale and are central to regional workforce strategies.
- Align workforce planning with skills and innovation agendas. The plan must join-up healthcare education policy across government departments, through the convening of a cross-government health education taskforce. The role of ICSs/ICBs in workforce planning should be clarified, and the plan should integrate broader strategies on digital health, research, and advanced practice to future-proof the workforce.
- Provide long-term funding certainty. Multi-year investment and clear commissioning frameworks are vital to enable universities to plan provision and expand capacity responsibly.
- Listen to the student voice and address the causes of declining recruitment and
attrition.
Read our submission to the 10 Year Workforce Plan call to evidence here.
