Staff focus - other support
Policy and reports
This section includes key strategic and standard documents which shape the current policy framework for clinical governance. The items below are specific to staff development and workforce issues.
For the overarching national standards and strategies please refer to the four country overviews - England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The documents and associated resources are listed in date order. The most recent publications appear at the top of the list.
Many of the resources below are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.
Compassion in practice. Nursing, midwifery and care staff: our vision and strategy (2012) (PDF 850.5KB)
Published by the Department of Health in December 2012, following on from a consultation, this three-year vision and strategy aims to build the culture of compassionate care in all nursing, midwifery and care-giving settings throughout the NHS and social care. The vision is based around six values – care, compassion, courage, communication, competence and commitment, known as the Six C's. It sets out six action areas for delivering the vision: Helping people to stay independent, maximise well-being and improving health outcomes; Working with people to provide a positive experience of care; Delivering high quality care and measuring the impact; Building and strengthening leadership; Ensuring we have the right staff, with the right skills, in the right place; Supporting positive staff experience. Examples of what each area encompasses and actions that support it are provided. See also the news story: Top nurses launch new drive to build culture of compassionate care across the NHS.
Education Outcomes Framework (2012)
The overall purpose of the Education Outcomes Framework (EOF) is to "ensure the health workforce has the right skills, behaviours and training, available in the right numbers, to support the delivery of excellent healthcare and health improvement" and it is intended to directly link education and learning to improvements in patients’ outcomes. The EOF provides a framework for the action that Health Education England will lead on and support, and a focus for their future work. It is based around five high level outcomes with the intention that further work will be done to develop a more detailed framework and indicators which will help measure delivery. The five high level domains are: excellent education; competent and capable staff; adaptable and flexible workforce; NHS values and behaviours; widening participation. Information about the Education Outcomes Framework is in the Health Education England website.
Liberating the NHS: Developing the healthcare workforce – from design to delivery (2012)
This document on the Department of Health's website presents the policy framework for a new approach to workforce planning and the education and training of the health and public health workforce. It builds on the responses to an earlier public consultation and the advice of the NHS Future Forum. It sets out a new education and training system based around new agencies – Health Education England (HEE) and the Local Education and Training Boards (LETBs) and how they will relate to other bodies. HEE will "provide national leadership and oversight on strategic planning and development of the health and public health workforce, and allocate education and training resources". The LETBs "will be the vehicle for providers and professionals to work with HEE to improve the quality of education and training outcomes so that they meet the needs of service providers, patients and the public". The document describes the purposes and core functions of these new bodies and highlights some of the issues around the future development and quality of education and training across the healthcare workforce.
See also: NHS Future Forum recommendations to Government - second phase.
Working differently - working together: a workforce and organisational development framework (2012)
This framework document published by the Welsh Government sets out four workforce and developmental objectives to support the Together for health five year plan for Wales. It describes the context and what needs to be done to achieve the objectives including key enabling actions and outcome measures.
Health visitor implementation plan 2011-15: a call to action, February 2011
The plan sets out a call to action to expand and strengthen health visiting services in England. It covers: the vision – why health visiting matter, and the new health visiting service; the call to action to professionals, service commissioners and providers and higher education institutes; the pathway to 2015; the supporting work programmes.
For an update from the Department of Health on the programme see the second health visitor Implementation progress report.
See also the Department of Health's guidance on sharing and enhancing good practice, and on the novice to expert journey and pathway for newly qualified health visitors in their first two years in A health visiting career (2012).
For ongoing news see Department of Health: Health visitors.
Advanced level nursing: a position statement (2010)
This position statement published by the Department of Health builds on work already undertaken by a range of organisations including the Royal College of Nursing, to define and establish the competencies and standards for advanced practice in the UK. The statement describes the level of practice expected of nurses working at advanced level who provide direct care to patients, clients, service users or populations. “It provides a benchmark for patients, carers, healthcare practitioners, managers, employers, commissioners and other stakeholders to use to make informed judgements regarding the required scope, level of practice and associated competence of nurses working at advanced level”.
The Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery was launched in March 2010 covering midwifery and all branches of nursing in England
The report of the commission identifies the skills and support that frontline nurses and midwives require to take a central role in the design and delivery of 21st century health care. The report sets the policy and socio-economic context and makes 20 high-level recommendations on seven key themes: high quality, compassionate care; the political economy of nursing and midwifery; health and wellbeing; caring for people with long-term conditions; promoting innovation in nursing and midwifery; nurses and midwives leading services; and careers in nursing and midwifery.
More information about the role the commission and its work can be found on the Prime Minister’s Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery in England website.
Partnership for care: a Northern Ireland Strategy for nursing and midwifery 2010-2015 (2010) (PDF 957KB)
The strategy is the culmination of a range of work which has taken place in Northern Ireland in response to the Modernising Nursing Careers agenda since its launch in 2006 and also takes into consideration the work undertaken for the Midwifery 2020 initiative. A pocket version of key messages is also available. See also: A Regional Nursing and Midwifery Strategy.
NHS health and well-being review (2009)
The final report of an independent review commissioned by the Department of Health to provide a better understanding of health and well-being in the NHS, and its links to productivity, efficiency, and patient experience. The review was led by Dr Steve Boorman. The report reveals that organisations that prioritised staff health and well-being “performed better, with improved patient satisfaction, stronger quality scores, better outcomes, higher levels of staff retention and lower rates of sickness absence”, and it makes a strong business case for investing in staff health and well-being. The report makes a series of recommendations and sets out a major change agenda for the NHS in making improvements in staff health and well-being services. The Department of Health response to the report underlines that “the NHS must be an exemplar employer in ensuring the health and well-being of its staff, if it is to make a real impact on the public health”.
Post registration career framework for nurses in Wales (2009)
The framework, published by the Welsh Assembly Government, is part of the UK wide Modernising Nursing Careers initiative and builds on the expected outcomes from ‘Designed to realise our potential’ published in 2008. It sets out the principles for a post registration career framework for nurses working in Wales – “key features of the framework are the need for career advice and review at key stages, succession planning, and the achievement of specific levels of knowledge and competencies in specialist and advanced level roles”.
The role of the nurse (2009)
This discussion paper from NHS Employers 'aims to give employers a summary of the emerging issues and to provoke thought and discussion about proposals to to modernise the nursing workforce'. The paper is available on the NHS Employers website.
RCN in Scotland: A sustainable future: the RCN vision for community nursing in Scotland (2009) (PDF 180KB)
RCN Scotland presents a vision for a sustainable future for community nursing which is based on consultation with members and other key stakeholders. The vision is underpinned by a National Framework for Community Nursing in Scotland which ensures that the core values and job profiles of community nursing retain national currency but allow for local flexibility, and recommends two fields one working with children, young people and families and the other focusing on the needs of adults and older adults. The vision is outlined in a document which describes six key 'asks' that RCN Scotland believes are necessary to take forward this vision.
See also Modernising nursing in the community launched by NHS Education for Scotland in 2012. This resource brings together information and tools to support the community nursing role, for example, information about career and development frameworks.
NHS Next Stage Review
The NHS Next Stage Review final report is the culmination of a process which started in July 2007 when Lord Darzi was asked to conduct a wide-ranging review of the NHS in England. Further details of the Review can be found in England: key strategies
This section provides links to the reports which focus on the issues around workforce planning and how these will be taken forward in nursing and midwifery:
High quality care for all: NHS Next Stage Review final report (2008)
The main findings of the Darzi review regarding the future of the NHS workforce are included in this final report from the Department of Health.
- A high quality workforce: NHS Next Stage review
This document from the Department of Health explains in more detail how each of the findings relating to workforce presented in the final report will be taken forward, and describes a system for workforce planning, education and training that aims to be sustainable for the long term. - Framing the nursing and midwifery contribution: driving up the quality of care
This document from the Department of Health summarises the contribution of nurses and midwives, which was outlined in the final report. It sets out the variety of work streams and activities, both planned and underway, which form an integrated strategy and which build on Modernising Nursing Careers and the Midwifery 2020 programme. The intention is to engage further with stakeholders to take the work forward; including considering the priorities and the resources and other implications of any future work.
Designed to realise our potential: a 'Beliefs and Actions' statement for nurses, midwives, and specialist community public health nurses in Wales for 2008 and beyond (2008)
This builds upon the 1999 strategy for nursing and midwifery in Wales 'Realising the potential' and retains the five original aims of that strategy. It is framed around a key 'Beliefs and actions statement' based on the values expressed by nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses, and patient and their carers. The statement focuses on core principles of patient care as underpinned by 'Fundamentals of care'. Outcomes for each of the aims are identified with cross references to the 'Healthcare standards for Wales'. Consultations with patients and carers highlighted the importance of care "focused on individual rights for respect, well-being, choice, trust and dignity". Appendices look at the current challenges and drivers for nursing and midwifery, and highlight priority areas in delivering high quality services, modernising careers, working in partnership, and developing leadership. The document is made available on the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) website.
Leading better care: report of the Senior Charge Nurse Review and Clinical Quality Indicators Project (2008)
The Senior Charge Nurse (SCN) /Midwife Review which was undertaken in Scotland arose from the need to create a modern leadership role as highlighted in 'Delivering care, enabling health', and to enable senior charge nurses to maximise their contribution to delivering the safe and effective patient care set out in 'Better health, better care'. The review, which involved stakeholder consultation, a literature review and an SCN activity analysis, points to the benefits of having a consistent framework for Senior Charge Nurses in hospitals across NHS Scotland. The framework is developed around four main dimensions of responsibility to: ensure safe and effective clinical practice; enhance patient experience; manage and develop the performance of the team; contribute to the delivery of the organisation's objectives.
This document also reports on the development of national clinical quality indicators (CQIs) which focus on continuous quality improvement and will include process indicators to measure aspects of nursing care - "empowered by their new role definition and equipped with the CQIs, senior charge nurses/midwives will be the guardians of clinical standards and quality of care for patients and families". The report is made available on the Scottish Government website.
The Education and development framework for senior charge nurses is available as a separate document providing a framework for role and continuous professional development, and describing the 13 capabilities linked to the four dimensions of the SCN role. The framework is made available on the NHS Education for Scotland (NES) website.
Delivering care, enabling health: harnessing the nursing, midwifery and allied health professions' contribution to implementing delivering for health in Scotland (2006)
The report discusses issues around the development of the NMAHP workforce and ways of working under three main headings - culture, capability and capacity. It proposes the delivery of services which will require a greater enabling role to support patient self-care, and an increasing emphasis on anticipatory care and community based care. A delivery action plan is included which is further developed in the report of the Review of Nursing in the Community in Scotland, ' Visible, accessible, integrated care'. The report is made available on the Scottish Government website.
Modernising nursing careers - setting the direction (2006)
The modernising nursing careers initiative encompasses the four United Kingdom countries and forms part of an overarching programme of work covering all the main healthcare professionals. This report, made available on the Department of Health website, sets the direction for future nursing careers in the context of the current health care reform programme and identifies four key priority areas that need to be addressed.
Visible, accessible and integrated care: report of the Review of Nursing in the Community in Scotland (2006)
This report complements the 'Delivering care, enabling health' strategy and action plan for the contribution of nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals (NMAHP's) in implementing 'Delivering for health'. The report presents a new service model for nursing in the community in Scotland with the creation of a single Community Health Nursing discipline, and identifies seven core elements of nursing in the community. It discusses what will be required to implement this model and to maximise the contribution that community nurses can make. The report is made available on the Scottish Government website.