News

03/09/25

03 September 2025

More than 70 health and care organisations join the RCP and NHS Providers in calling for productive engagement with Health Secretary on workforce plan

Houses Of Parliament

The letter (below) requests ‘productive and accessible’ engagement between the sector, the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England on the development of the 10 Year Workforce Plan for the NHS which is due to be published later this year.

The group, which consists of 74 health and care organisations and charities representing hundreds of thousands of patients and NHS staff, say that it is crucial to establish a robust engagement process and allow the time required to produce a credible plan, with stakeholder buy-in and an accompanying implementation plan.

They emphasise that a well-resourced workforce will be critical to delivering the government’s 10 year health plan published in July, which focuses on shifting care from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

NHS Providers chief executive Daniel Elkeles and RCP president Professor Mumtaz Patel said:

‘The 10 Year Workforce Plan will be fundamental to building a successful and sustainable NHS, so it’s important that we get this right. That means taking the time to ensure there’s meaningful stakeholder engagement, so it’s credible with the very people it will most affect, and the patients they serve. It can’t be rushed.

‘This coalition – representing hundreds of thousands of NHS staff and patients – is urging the government to engage with us, ensure that the assumptions behind the plan are robust, the detail is properly thought through, and a clear implementation plan is set out. We look forward to working with the government to develop a 10 Year Workforce Plan that stays the course and delivers for the NHS.’

The letter requests that the Department for Health and Social Care outlines plans and timelines for engagement in its response.

Professor Mumtaz Patel added: 

‘Our NHS workforce will be critical to delivering the three shifts set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. Meaningful, proactive engagement with the medical profession is vital to deliver a credible plan.  

‘Modelling the health workforce is no easy task, but we stand ready to offer our expertise to inform the assumptions underpinning the 10-Year Workforce Plan. Physicians are key to understanding demand in the medical specialties, as well as the staff roles that are needed and add value to delivering the best care possible for patients. We can provide insights into the shared and unique challenges that specialty workforces face, and our expertise in running and delivering frontline services. 

‘Any physician will tell you how common rota gaps are and how these impact on delivering safe patient care. The reality for our members is a service where staffed are stretched, trying to keep up with demand that is changing with growing patient complexity and very little time to supervise and support our next generation of physicians.'  

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Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Department of Health and Social Care
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU

By email
3 September 2025

Dear Secretary of State,

Re: 10 Year Workforce Plan for the NHS

We are writing to you as a coalition of 74 health and care organisations to open productive and accessible engagement between the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, and our organisations on the development of the 10 Year Workforce Plan for the NHS.

As you will remember, our organisations – which represent a large part of the health and care workforce and the patients they treat – first came together during the passage of the Health and Care Act 2022, to call for regular, independent assessments of the staff needed to keep pace with patient demand. We welcomed Labour’s valuable support and backing for that call, and your manifesto commitment to publish regular, independent workforce planning across health and social care. We stand ready to support you in delivering these commitments.

We welcome that the government has committed to publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan. A well-resourced NHS workforce will be essential to delivering the three shifts in the 10 Year Health Plan for England. Only a third of staff believe there are enough staff in their organisation to do their job properly and we know that patients are waiting too long to get the care they need. Patients and staff must be confident that the proposals in the 10 Year Workforce Plan will lead to a more sustainably staffed health service.

As such, it is crucial to get a robust stakeholder engagement process underway, and allow the time to produce a thorough, credible workforce plan with stakeholder buy-in and an accompanying implementation plan. In its analysis of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s modelling last year, The National Audit Office recommended that “assumptions should be generated in transparent and systematic consultation with external stakeholders” and that more should be made of this opportunity for future workforce modelling. We ask you to ensure that this recommendation is met for the 10 Year Workforce Plan, and we stand ready to offer our considerable shared expertise.

The success of the plan will hinge on this learning from the previous Long Term Workforce Plan. The plan is also a key opportunity to deliver improvements for existing staff to improve retention and morale, and set out a pathway towards an accompanying, much needed, workforce plan for social care.

We remain supportive of a regularly refreshed, credible national workforce plan for the NHS with independently verified modelling. We are clear that funding will need to be attached to any priorities that the plan sets. 

We would welcome the opportunity to support you to deliver this, and request that your department sets out, in its response to this letter, plans and timelines for engagement.

Yours sincerely,

1.      Academy of Medical Royal Colleges

2.      Action Bladder Cancer UK

3.      Action Kidney Cancer

4.      AgeUK

5.      Association of British Neurologists

6.      Association of Cancer Physicians

7.      Asthma + Lung UK

8.      Bliss

9.      Blood Cancer UK

10.  Bowel Cancer UK

11.  Brainstrust

12.  Breast Cancer Now

13.  British Cardiovascular Society

14.  British Geriatrics Society

15.  British Heart Foundation

16.  British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians

17.  British Medical Association

18.  British Nuclear Medicine Society

19.  British Orthopaedic Association

20.  British Psychological Society

21.  British Society of Haematology

22.  British Society for Rheumatology

23.  British Thoracic Society

24.  Cancer52

25.  Cancer Care Map

26.  CATTs (Cancer Awareness for Teens & Twenties)

27.  Centre for Mental Health

28.  Clinical Genetics Society

29.  College of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare

30.  Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine

31.  Faculty of Public Health

32.  Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine UK

33.  Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust

34.  Intensive Care Society

35.  Macmillan Cancer Support

36.  Medical and Dental Schools Council

37.  NHS Confederation

38.  NHS Providers

39.  OUTpatients

40.  Ovacome

41.  Parkinson’s UK

42.  Prostate Cancer UK

43.  Radiotherapy UK

44.  Royal College of Anaesthetists

45.  Royal College of Emergency Medicine

46.  Royal College of General Practitioners

47.  Royal College of Midwives

48.  Royal College of Nursing

49.  Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

50.  Royal College of Occupational Therapists

51.  Royal College of Ophthalmologists

52.  Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

53.  Royal College of Pathologists

54.  Royal College of Physicians

55.  Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

56.  Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow

57.  Royal College of Radiologists

58.  Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists

59.  Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

60.  Sarcoma UK

61.  Society of Acute Medicine

62.  Solving Kids’ Cancer UK

63.  Sue Ryder

64.  Target Ovarian Cancer

65.  Taskforce for Lung Health

66.  Teenage Cancer Trust

67.  The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy

68.  The Children & Young People's Cancer Association

69.  The Eve Appeal

70.  The King’s Fund

71.  The Neurological Alliance

72.  UNISON

73.  Versus Arthritis

74.  Young Lives vs Cancer