08 October 2025
Workforce was identified as the most likely barrier to the success of the 10-Year Health Plan during the Labour Party Conference.
Speaking during the 10-Year Health Plan: Making Time to Care fringe event, Paulette Hamilton, MP for Birmingham Erdington, said that she is more concerned about retention of NHS staff than recruitment into the service.
“I am really supportive of the 10-year plan, but I absolutely believe that there needs to be a lot of work and investment in people. People are what makes a good service,” Hamilton said.
She noted that currently, NHS staff do not feel as though they are valued.
Hamilton is a former NHS nurse, and is currently Interim Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee.
Sally Gainsbury, senior policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust, noted that there is unlikely to be any more money for NHS staff to assist with the aims of the 10-Year Health Plan.
“I think there is a real problem with the 10-year plan, and it is completely out of kilter with the level of resource that is going into the NHS and what the NHS is being asked to do, in terms of productivity and scaling back its funding,” Gainsbury told attendees.
The 10-Year Health Plan risks the NHS being seen as a service that provides “everything for everybody,” which results in staff and services becoming overwhelmed, Gainsbury said.
She emphasised: “I really worry that the politics around the NHS are telling voters that the NHS is a consumer offer – it will be as easily accessible as ordering something on Amazon.
“The government has been clear: there isn’t the money to pay for that. [There is] a very real danger of staff overwhelm, and services being overwhelmed.”
There is a “reality gap” that is “getting in the way of finding time to care,” Gainsbury believes.
Sebastian Rees, principal research fellow and head of health at the Institute for Public Policy Research, noted that there are mentions of burnout and exhaustion in the 10-Year Health Plan, but not enough detail on how these issues could be tackled.
“Time is the central currency in which we deal,” Rees said.
“That acknowledgement that how time is distributed, what it gets spent on, and where it gets spent, is the fundamental question for future healthcare delivery, [and] is the right starting point,” Rees said.
“Successful delivery of the 10-year plan will be about staff doing different things and spending time in different ways, and then thinking through what that looks like and how it provides holistic quality care for everyone.”
There is a risk of losing “many years” setting up new provider organisations, reorganising the role of commissioners, or changing funding flows, Rees believes.
“Working out what we do with workforce needs to be the central consideration of the plan going forward, and it needs to be right up there in terms of priorities,” Rees added.
Job security, workforce projections and planning should be priorities within a new workforce plan, he said.
“Workforce planning needs to be about providing holistic care and giving people time to care, and working as a team to provide that,” Rees believes.
“A clear sense of direction from government” is also needed around NHS operational staff, Rees said.
Getting the right people and the right equipment in the right place at the right time is “perhaps the most complex of all coordination challenges that we’ve yet invented,” he believes.
He emphasised: “Without that workforce, we’re not going to be able to deliver on the front line.”
Speaking during the Institute for Government’s How can the government make its health reforms a success? panel, Alex McIntyre, MP for Gloucester and a member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, said: “We desperately need to make sure we have a workforce plan that reflects the new priorities of government, that is massively invested in our community outreach and work, so that we can actually deliver that part of the shift.”
McIntyre also emphasised low morale amongst NHS staff, and the importance of addressing it.
“Retention is really important as well. Morale is really low amongst the workforce, and we’ve got to make sure that we are keeping the best and the brightest on the front lines in the NHS for as long as we can,” he said.
Thea Stein, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, also emphasised the challenge of delivery without detail whilst speaking on the same panel.
“Delivery is something that is not underpinned by any realistic financial plans or any realistic workforce plans,” Stein said.
“We know that the public always have a feeling that there should be more staff,” she added, before emphasising: “It’s the right staff, in the right place, doing the right things, that matter. That level of analysis is really, really important.”
Stein added: “There are a huge range of issues here. I don’t think the government’s health policies are doomed to fail, but I think we need to be very realistic about what they can actually achieve at the moment.”
Speaking about the value of NHS staff during the 10-Year Health Plan: Making Time to Care panel, Hamilton added: “There is nothing better than our health service when delivered well, but what they need is support to deliver it well.
“At the moment, our biggest commodity is staff. If we don’t look after staff, the 10-year plan, in my opinion, will fail – and we can't afford for it to fail.”
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A pipeline from university
During the How can the government make its health reforms a success? panel, McIntyre emphasised the importance of pathways into work, ensuring that “those people who are training in the system get into roles.”
This is a particular challenge amongst junior doctors, McIntyre said.
He added: “That aligns with a lot of the other government missions, [including] on making sure that we are training more people here [in the UK].”
Professor Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College Nursing, emphasised the importance of planning ahead for the healthcare roles that are required, particularly in England.
Speaking specifically about learning disability nurses, she noted: “It’s all just left to chance. It’s who decides to apply to university.
“How on earth would you describe a National Health Service with no plan on the workforce? I personally think it is ridiculous.”
Ranger emphasised: “We need to liberate and value what we’ve got, and we need a far better plan that genuinely commissions services.”
She added: “We have got to change the way that we work. I will be really disappointed if we get some sort of plan with philosophical ideas, and we don’t invest in who we’ve got now, and look at the patient and then plan what we need around them.”
Ranger also reiterated the need to “put those closest to the patients at the centre of decision making.”
Speaking about protecting staff, Kevin McKenna, MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, noted that there is an undeniable culture of bullying from managers and patients within the NHS.
McKenna, a former nurse, revealed that he has been treated “much better” since he has been an MP – despite nursing being named as one of the most trusted professions by the public.
How staff are valued should be given more consideration, McKenna said.
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Tiggy Puggenheim09 October 2025
Bizarre how patients now think that bullying optometrists so they can feel better is acceptable. My wife has just quit optometry after forty years, she can't take the rudeness and abuse from patients anymore. Such a contrast to her early days in the business - her original boss was a progressive employer, employing young female OOs, (whatever next) and non European DO's. (gasp!)
He was a big chap, and literally used to throw male patients out the door if they upset his female staff! And a few grand dames born in the last century were walked briskly to the door if they refused to see the new Indian DO. These days we are told there is nothing to be done, just suck it up...
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