More than 70 health and care organisations have written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting telling him they ‘stand ready’ to offer their considerable expertise as they call for meaningful engagement on the development of the 10 year workforce plan.
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