Agenda item

To receive a presentation from Linda Lang, University of Wolverhampton and to consider ‘A Health Workforce for the future’.

Professor Linda Lang, Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing (FEHW) provided a presentation. Health Scrutiny had, at a previous meeting, identified that there was a national issue of a shortage of young doctors and medical professionals and requested a report on ‘building a workforce for the future’ at a later meeting.

The presentation focused on health courses and informed the Panel about the following:

·         Range of Health courses, research and CPD

·         Quality and innovations

·         New Developments

·         Horizon scanning

·         Partnerships

Professor Linda Lang informed the Panel about the FEHW mission and strategic priorities.  During the presentation she highlighted that the University was a large provider of all types of nursing and midwife provision, which have quality assurance with Health Education West Midlands. She advised that the University is very dependent on Partners for placements in the City.

In relation to the shortage of nurses in the City, she advised the Panel that this was not necessarily the fault of work force planning.  She informed the Panel that in the height of austerity the cuts to budget had had a large impact and the Francis report ‘nurse to patient ratio’ recommendation had worsened the issue. She informed the Panel that it takes three years to train a nurse; that there were not enough student placements and that the number of placements restrains the number of students; thereby there were not enough nurses graduating to meet the demand.

The Professor indicated that the Autumn Budget announced changes, to remove student nurse bursary of £1,000 and introduce means testing which would have an impact on numbers of students entering nursing.  She advised that the university has looked at introducing fee paying nursing masters degrees and had clarified that a four year integrated master’s degree would be entitled to a student loan. She informed the Panel that the first intake of 18 would be on a short trajectory, that a post graduate degree would also be developed and that they would either have experience already or the university would enable them to gain experience.

The Professor outlined the achievements of the University and the University Technical College (UTC), which focuses on health services and was one of the most successful in the Country.  She highlighted that the university had grown responsibly and introduced innovations that would help people with no formal qualifications to become qualified nurses and that it was now oversubscribed.  She outlined how one of the new innovations - ‘LEAP’ involved both young and older people with no qualifications, but who have the right attitude and that 15 LEAP students had achieved first class degrees in 2014-15. Other innovations outlined in the presentation have been developed to attract good people to study and stay in Wolverhampton, from local areas and internationally.

The Professor provided a summary of the horizon scanning carried out by the University; she advised that there were 51 horizon seams.  She highlighted the quality of teaching, the EU bid writing facilities and the willingness to work with the City of Wolverhampton Council.

Cllr Milkinderpal Jaspal, Chair, welcomed the presentation and the wonderful work that was happening to make the links and address the shortage of health staff and workforce in the City.   

The Professor indicated that nursing was not purely ‘technical’ and that nurses have to understand why they do what they do and to have an all-round education, gaining a degree at the same time as developing skills. She highlighted the need for nurses to understand physiology, bio-chemistry, have confidence and be able to challenge a colleague if they think a mistake is being made. She indicated that 50% of nurse education is in practice, working with people and understanding the issues from a patient perspective.

In response to questions about the autumn statement and the removal of the grant for student nurses, David Loughton, Chief Executive of The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, advised that the costs would need to be looked at, but that it was likely that the numbers of student nurses would potentially half and that work would be needed to look at loans for student nurses.  He advised that teams of recruitment staff were sourcing nursing staff in the Philippines but that immigration rule changes may have an impact on numbers recruited. He advised that another issue with recruitment was that candidates were attending multiple interviews and accepting several jobs, which frustrated the process and had impact on the number of actual numbers recruited.

In response to questions from Cllr Wendy Thompson relating to escalating agency fees and the proposed cap on agency staff, the Chief Executive advised that between 30-50% of Accident and Emergency (A&E) unit staff across the Country is commissioned locums and that the cap may not work.  He advised that agencies do not have a contract and many offer a £50 welcome for phoning it.  He recognised the need to tackle A&E but that this was a national issue and decisions taken in one area would have impact on another.

David Hellyar, Health Watch Member, referred to the shift of emphasis of trained nurses moving to community care.  The Professor suggested that some people prefer to work in the community rather than acute hospitals.

In response to further questions the Panel was advised that recent reports had highlighted that over a quarter of all medical graduates are going abroad, paramedics are moving to New Zealand where they are paid considerably more than in the UK.

Resolved:

1.    The Panel received the presentation.

2.      That a site visit is arranged to the University Technical College (UTC) and the next meeting of the Panel be held at the UTC.