Up to 42 NHS trusts are set to benefit from innovative workforce retention programmes, as new figures reveal that thousands more staff are choosing to stay working for the health service.
The pilot initiative, which was launched in April 2022, has benefited 23 NHS trusts so far and has seen 14,000 fewer frontline staff leave the NHS in the 12 months up to August 2023 – 108,890 down from 122,970 the year prior.
Help offered by the scheme includes support for menopausal women. United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust introduced weekly menopause clinics led by the organisation’s wellbeing team.
The programme worked by allowing women to self-refer themselves to the clinic, where a nurse will triage them and offer advice on how to manage symptoms – if necessary, a 45-minute appointment with a specialist is provided.
Given 3,500 of the Lincolnshire trust’s staff are women over 45, which is the equivalent of around a third (35%) of the workforce, the pilot has been responsible for approximately £9m in agency fee savings this year alone.
Other practices include offering staff more flexible working hours or, for those on the cusp of leaving, informal meetings with HR to find a solution and keep staff onboard.
The ‘HR stay advocates’ have been adopted by Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust and can lead to staff being given different working hours and more training opportunities.
NHS England’s chief workforce, training and education officer, Dr Navina Evans, said: “This winter is going to be a challenging one for the NHS, and while staff will be going above and beyond to look after patients, it’s also important that we look after those helping us too.”
She continued: “That is why we are almost doubling the number of trusts implementing our successful retention programme, which has helped prevent thousands of staff from leaving the NHS altogether – a crucial intervention at a time when our workforce is under so much pressure.
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