Written Statement - NHS workforce review

As part of the two-year pay deal for 2014-15 and 2015-16, which was reached with trade unions representing NHS staff on Agenda for Change contracts last year, it was agreed to set up an NHS review to consider a wide range of workforce and pay issues in the context of the Nuffield Trust report A Decade of Austerity in Wales?

This statement informs Assembly Members about the membership of the review panel and the main areas of its work.

The review panel will be chaired by David Jenkins, chair of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. The other members are:

• Professor Ceri Phillips, head of the College of Human and Health Sciences and professor of health economics at Swansea Centre for Health Economics (SCHE);
• Dr Clare Gerada, partner in the Hurley Group, London and former chair of the council of the Royal College of General Practitioners;
• >Professor Stuart Cole, emeritus professor of transport, University of South Wales;
• Martin Mansfield, secretary to the Workforce Partnership Council trade union side, trade union leader on the Council for Economic Renewal and General Secretary, Wales TUC.

Each of the members have been carefully selected to ensure the review panel has a wide range of experience, abilities and competencies – both from within and outside the health arena. Additional members may be appointed to the panel in the coming weeks and I will update Assembly Members if any further appointments are made.

The review will consider the following:

• The identification of new models of service delivery, which are at the forefront of the integration of health and social care together with an analysis of the barriers experienced by such models and associated ways of working;
• The workforce of the future; the staff and skill mix the NHS needs to ensure people receive high-quality care as close to their homes as possible;
• Areas of efficiency, taking into account the principles of prudent healthcare to help address the long-term financial challenge between 2016-17 and 2025-26, as identified in the Nuffield Trust report A Decade of Austerity in Wales?; and
• The long-term strategic direction for pay and reward for people currently covered by the UK Agenda for Change (and executive and senior posts) contract terms and conditions. This will include the affordability of future pay and rewards within the context of the Nuffield Trust report A Decade of Austerity in Wales?; and the approach to considering, determining and setting future pay and rewards.

The review will take evidence from a range of key stakeholders and will publish its final conclusions and recommendations once its work is complete.