WORKFORCE ARTICLES

From January 2026, public funding for level 7 (master’s level) apprenticeships will disappear for most adults, yet over 60% of current learners fall outside the new age caps. For healthcare, this risks stalling leadership progress, widening skills gaps and slowing much-needed digital transformation, warns Steven Hurst, Director of Corporate Learning at Arden University.

Kate Woodhead warns that fatigue is an unexplored factor in patient and staff safety in healthcare. In this article, she reflects on the findings of the latest Health Services Safety Investigations Body’s report, which looks at the impact of fatigue.

The UK’s health and social care system is facing significant challenges, including demographic shifts, increasing demand, financial constraints and workforce shortages. New approaches are needed to long-standing challenges, and we all have a part to play, argues Mark Underwood. He looks at how we can support a flexible health and social care workforce to ensure a better future.

Head of Project Management at InnoScot Health, Gillian Henderson, discusses the vital need for fresh NHS workforce-led ideas at a challenging time. She argues that we have never had a greater need to embed an innovation mindset as early as possible, in future members of the NHS workforce, and looks at how clinical innovation can be supported.

At NPAG 2024, human factors in operating theatres were high on the agenda. ‘Incivility can be contagious’ and ‘rudeness can prove deadly’ were among the take-home messages of the day. Louise Frampton reports.

Apprenticeships are the missing piece of the puzzle to reduce staff shortages and treatment waiting times. They can also promote diversity, says Professor Lynne Gell, Dean of the School of Nursing, at BPP.