The Department of Health (DoH) has launched its new HR Strategic Framework for the NHS.
Andrew Foster, director of workforce at the DoH, said the new framework reflected the changing environment of the health service, and the pressure to improve productivity.
“We are no longer in a period of major growth and implementing pay reform,” he told Personnel Today. “The NHS must now start receiving the benefits of this and move forward.”
The new framework incorporates 10 “high impact” HR actions which can make a big difference to organisations, Foster said. These are based on cost savings, improving patient experience, waiting times and driving up quality.
Foster admitted that these HR interventions “were not rocket science” and that many NHS organisations were already implementing some of them. But Foster said: “Hardly any [trusts] are doing all 10, so there is still room for improvement.”
Duncan Brown, assistant director-general at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said the success of the NHS was inextricably linked with its HR strategy.
“People management has a key role to play in delivering performance,” he said.
