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Publications policy and guidance
The NHS Cancer Plan: a plan for investment, a plan for reform
- Foreword
- The NHS Cancer Plan: next steps
- Executive summary
- Chapter 1 - The challenge of cancer
- Chapter 2 - Improving prevention
- Chapter 3 - Improving Screening
- Chapter 4 - Improving cancer services in the community
- Chapter 5 - Cutting waiting for diagnosis and treatment
- Chapter 6 - Improving treatment
- Chapter 7 - Improving care
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Chapter 8 - Investing in staff
- Investigating staff
- Getting the workforce we need
- Tackling the shortages: More consultants, more trainees, new training arrangements
- Tackling the shortages: More cancer nurses, more radiographers
- Increasing capacity through new ways of working
- Increasing flexibility and capacity by developing new skills
- Better deal for staff
- Developing the cancer workforce
- Planning for the future
- Chapter 9 - Investing in facilities
- Chapter 10 - Investing in the future: research and genetics
- Chapter 11 - Implementing the NHS Cancer Plan
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Better deal for staff
8.41 The NHS Plan set out wide-ranging new initiatives to improve the working lives of NHS staff which will benefit cancer staff.
Improving the working lives of staff contributes directly to enhanced cancer services through improved recruitment and retention. Offering new opportunities for development and extended roles will open up new career opportunities for staff who have previously faced restriction and dead ends.
8.42 For the first time the way NHS employers treat staff will be part of core NHS performance measures and linked to the resources trusts receive. The Improving Working Lives Standard has been published setting out a model of good HR practice against which NHS employers will be kite-marked. The Standard summarises the commitment expected from NHS employers to create well managed, flexible working environments that support staff, promote their welfare and development and respect their need to manage a healthy and productive balance between their work and their outside life.
8.43 The Nursing Contribution to Cancer Care, published in June 2000, sets out the contribution and impact that cancer nurse leaders can make to the national cancer programme through improvements to:
- organisation, management and quality of care and services
- workforce planning
- education, training and continuing professional development
- recruitment, retention and career pathways
- leadership
A new study of the development, delivery and evaluation of nursing services in England is underway and will report in spring 2001.
8.44 A Human Resources Strategy for the Professions Allied to Medicine will be launched later in the year and will highlight the important role that these professions play in implementing the NHS Plan and the government's plans for supporting and developing the workforce. The strategy will be supported by:
- Roll out of education reforms to provide more flexible courses and widening of entry gates
- Funding to support leadership development
- Funding for return to practice initiatives
- Development of the therapy consultant role
8.45 Later on a Human Resources Strategy for healthcare scientists will be published.
Recruiting and retaining staff
8.46 A recruitment campaign is underway in the NHS as part of a three year strategy to improve the image of the NHS as an employer and secure more recruits into the health care professions that contribute to the cancer health care team. Initially targeted at nursing, the 'Join the Team' campaign has been designed to have wider appeal across all healthcare professions, including radiography and physiotherapy.
Return to practice
8.47 The NHS needs to make the best use of experienced staff and encourage those who are no longer practising to come back to work in the NHS. National and local return to practice initiatives have been successful in bringing nurses back into the cancer workforce. Some qualified radiographers no longer work in the NHS. The return to practice campaign, originally targeted at nursing, is now being extended to radiographers and other professions.
8.48 This initiative includes setting up return to practice programmes, recruitment materials targeted at radiographers and national workshops to spread good practice and support trusts in their recruitment campaigns. The Department of Health will also write to potential returners to highlight the way the NHS is changing and to give them information about how they could come back to work in the NHS.
Improving pay
8.49 The Department of Health is working with trade unions and other professional representatives on new and fairer pay arrangements for NHS staff. The new system will reward staff for what they do rather than for their job title and will recognise flexible team working across traditional skill boundaries. There are a range of problems affecting pathology staff and a working group of the National Advisory Group on Scientists and Technicians, made up of representatives of employers and staff side organisations, is considering how to address the problems of this key group of staff. The NHS will need to move quickly to increase incentives for staff to join or rejoin the NHS in those parts of the country where labour shortages are most serious. As part of the NHS plan, a new market forces supplement is proposed to top up the pay of staff in areas where there are labour market shortages.
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