
This report has been developed to support the delivery of the Five Year Forward View for mental health, which sets out the improvements needed in mental health services by 2020/21.
Stepping Forward to 2020/21: the mental health workforce plan for England sets out a high level road map and reflects the additional staff required to deliver this transformation. It provides a summary of the shape of the current workforce, including vacancy rates, recommendations for mental health providers in thinking about their workforce pipeline, and recommendations for arm’s length bodies and the wider NHS to identify the best skill mix to deliver evidence-based care in the optimal way. Broadening the traditional workforce and using a comprehensive skills mix will enable the NHS to fulfill the plan and the wider strategy.
The report shows how nurses, occupational therapists, psychiatrists, peer support workers and other professionals can help deliver the care needed. It highlights that the NHS will establish 21,000 posts and hire 19,000 additional members of staff by 2020. 11,000 of these will be from the traditional pools of professionally regulated staff. In addition, there will be 8,000 people recruited into new roles such as peer support workers, personal wellbeing practitioners, call handlers, or nursing associates.
This report follows the same ambitions as the recent report by the Nuffield Trust, Reshaping the workforce to deliver the care patients need, commissioned by NHS Employers, which emphasised the value of and the need for new and extended roles in the NHS workforce.
Learn more about the report on the HEE website.
You can find good practice and more information about reshaping the workforce on our new reshaping the non-medical workforce webpages.