Do we know where we are heading?

The required actions from nurses to enable the delivery of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), whether in frontline care delivery or education roles, need some consideration. Setting out both ambition and actions, the plan (NHS England, 2023) estimates that the NHS workforce will need to grow to from 1.4 million full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in 2021/22 to between 2.3 million and 2.4 million FTE workers in 2036/37.

The LTWP includes expansion of pre-registration and clinical apprenticeship programmes. The aim is that, by 2031, 22% of training for all programmes will be provided via this route from the current baseline of 7%. This is supported by several reform priorities for the clinical professions, including a 40% rise in nursing associate training places over the next 5 years. By 2036/37, the objective is to have over 64 000 nursing associates working in the NHS, compared with 9300 in 2023.