Understanding Workforce Availability: identify current and future staff availability based on current profile and deployment (workforce supply)
This step involves describing the existing workforce in the areas under consideration, its existing skills and deployment and assessing any problem areas arising from its age profile or turnover. It may be the case that the ready availability of staff with particular skills or, alternatively, the shortage of such staff. This itself contributes to service redesign and Steps 2 and 3 will need to be revisited. Consideration should be given to the practicalities and cost of any retraining, redeployment and/or recruitment activities that could increase or change workforce supply.
The current workforce
What are the characteristics of the current workforce, wherever it is located?
Workforce forecasting
What turnover, vacancies, recruitment patterns do you anticipate and what might impact on this even without service change e.g. EWTD, demographic changes etc?
Options for changing supply
What initiatives for retention, retraining, recruitment, redeployment etc can realistically be developed?
Statistics and data collection >>>
The majority of future workforce will be your existing workforce. This tool supports section 4 and 4.1 by assessing your current workforce.
What does it do?
NHS staff numbers/NHS staff earnings/NHS staff turnover/NHS and GP vacancies/NHS staff sickness and absence.
NHS staff numbers/NHS staff earnings/NHS staff turnover/NHS and GP vacancies/NHS staff sickness and absence
What is it? T
he majority of future workforce will be your existing workforce. This Tool supports section 4 and 4.1 by assessing your current workforce.
The guide explains why skill mix reviews should be carried out, looking at how they fit in with both the supply and demand sides of workforce planning. There are some brief step by step instructions of how to carry out a skill mix review within an organisation.
Christmas trees provide a visual representation of the NHS workforce based on the NHS career framework. This is a user friendly leaflet describing the approach and reports.
This briefing paper gives an overview of the demographic factors which could have an impact on the healthcare workforce, both in terms of demand for services and the capacity of the health service to respond to the demand.
Workforce Supply Tool >>>
Allows users to produce reports on their current workforce, undertake workforce forecasting and understand options for changing supply as per step 4 - section 4.1., 4.2. and 4.3..
What does it do?
The Assessing Workforce Supply Tool generates workforce supply profiles and reports from Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and other staffing databases using Microsoft Excel. It produces statistical and graphical reports based on a host of factors including staff group, pay band, Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) competence, sickness and absence, age, leavers and new starters.
WTD Rota Database >>>
Offers users access to compliant EWTD rotas being used across the country. Supports step 4 (section 4.3).
What does it do?
Struggling to create EWTD compliant rotas? The tool is a free to use database of NHS rotas compiled by colleagues in trusts, foundation trusts and strategic health authorities. A library of over 100 EWTD compliant rotas, currently in use in the NHS, can be searched using a range of options and then used by colleagues in the NHS involved in workforce planning.
Statistics and data collection >>>
The majority of future workforce will be your existing workforce. This tool supports step 4 and 4.1 by assessing your current workforce.
What does it do?
NHS staff numbers/NHS staff earnings/NHS staff turnover/NHS and GP vacancies/NHS staff sickness and absence.
What does it do? In order to assist SHAs with understanding how the national workforce supply affects their local commissioning plans, WRT has produced a series of profession specific maps which allow comparison of the local workforce circumstances with the national picture. Using the most recently available data, the maps show the regional distribution of commissions, weighted capitation and staff in post for nursing, midwifery and each of the allied health professions.
Deanery Monitoring >>>
Supports step 4, section 4.2 by enabling users to take into account a forecast of the number of Junior Doctors that will be qualified in the coming years.
What does it do?
The annual monitoring of the English Post Graduate Deaneries provides a snap shot of the number of doctors in training to the Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) by deanery and specialty. The data is collected by The Information Centre for Health and Social Care (IC) as of the end of March each year.
What is this resource?
This tool aims to assist nursing workforce planning and help make better decisions about cost effective numbers and mixes of nurses.
What does it do?
The Workload/Workforce Capacity Planning Tool is a model that has been developed to measure the current national (England) workload and workforce capacity, based on clinical and workforce supply and demand data. Led by the national education commissioning lead for endoscopy and developed in partnership with NHS staff from multi-disciplinary backgrounds, this innovative tool clearly pinpoints the shortfalls in the existing workforce and looks at alternative skill mix means.
What does it do?
The ESR analysis tool has been developed and used by David Priscott, head of workforce planning and education at NHS Plymouth since 2007, to efficiently use electronic staff record (ESR) information to support workforce planning.
The tool generates workforce skill mix trees and age profiles from a single data download from ESR.
Now you’ve experienced the Six Steps Methodology to Integrated Workforce Planning, we’d love to hear your opinions about the resource, and how it can continue to be developed in the future. We’d also love to hear from you if you have any suggestions of further electronic tools that could be used to help put together a workforce plan.
Six Steps 
