The long-awaited NHS Long Term Workforce Plan was finally published on 30th June this year. But at 151 pages long, have you had time to wade your way through it? If not, here are the ten things you need to know about it – most of which we covered in the latest episode of the Practice Index podcast.

1. General practice features heavily in the plan

Unlike previous workforce plans, primary and community care are front and centre of this one. The document explicitly recognises that boosting these areas is key to the NHS thriving in the future.

2. Pay is not included

Despite the fact that junior doctors, nurses, ambulance staff and consultants are all striking right now, there’s no mention in the plan of pay or of any action that will be taken to bring these strikes to an end.

3. More GPs will be recruited

Without explicitly mentioning the previously promised 6,000 GPs, the document does recognise that there has been no net increase. It outlines plans to increase the number of GP specialty training places from 4,000 to 6,000 by 2031/32.

4. More speciality and associate specialist doctors are expected in general practice

The plan expects the traditional career path of core and specialty training to become less popular, with an increasing proportion of doctors likely to work part-time. The modelled increases are “particularly targeted towards general practice” (p41).

5. More additional roles are coming

The plan does not say that the ARRS will continue, but rather that they will build on the success of the scheme and increase the number of additional roles staff by 15,000 (i.e., half as much again as over the course of the PCN DES) by 2036/37. In addition, over 5,000 additional primary care nurses are promised.

6. Retention plans feel less concrete than the recruitment plans

While the plans to expand recruitment are explicit and quantified, the plans to improve the retention of staff are less so. The plan proposes “systematic improvements to recruitment and promotion practices, leadership diversity, disciplinary processes, governance and accountability, and training and education. The NHS must embed a compassionate culture built on civility, respect and equal opportunity” (p60).

7. The plan encourages NHS terms and conditions for primary care staff

In a possible nod towards the potential nationalisation of general practice, the document wants ICSs to pursue “innovative employment models and adoption of NHS terms and conditions in primary care” (p62).

8. Workforce development across primary and community care could become joint

The NHS is very keen on bringing primary and community care together, and this plan explicitly seeks an integrated career framework to operate across primary and community care (p67).

9. This plan will be reviewed and updated every two years

Apparently, the authors recognise that circumstances change, and as such, they have committed to the plan being reviewed and updated every two years following its publication this year.

10. Practice managers do not get a mention

While the clinical staff in general practice are at the forefront of the report, sadly the same cannot be said for practice managers. In what is probably a reflection of the national undervaluing of the role, there’s no mention at all of the critical role practice managers play and no explicit workforce plan included for them going forward.