Discover the latest Solving Together blogs here.

Blog from Julie Read, Physiotherapist, MCSP

Strategic Lead Clinical Expansion Programmes, NHS England

How can we attract people to a rewarding healthcare career? How can we encourage people to explore the many training opportunities on offer such as healthcare apprenticeships and degrees across the nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions?

We’re using the Solving Together platform to crowdsource ideas and solutions on how we can attract people both to healthcare careers and training opportunities such as apprenticeships and degree courses.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has ambitious targets to increase the number of people working in the nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions. Sufficient interest and applications from students in healthcare roles is vital to growing the number of people working in our health service.

NHS services are also constantly evolving to meet patient need. New ways of working, services and technologies are constantly being developed and we need a high-quality workforce to deliver them.

I am a physiotherapist (one of the allied health professions) by background. I didn’t get the expected A levels grades and went through UCAS Clearing to start my training. As I was growing up, I did not fully appreciate the range of training and career opportunities that the NHS offers and it wasn’t until I joined the NHS that my eyes were fully opened.

I joined the NHS because I wanted to make a difference to people’s lives. I have been lucky to be able to do this in many roles, whether that’s working clinically, and supporting people to recover and rehabilitate, or developing colleagues and watching them achieve great things. I also have some of the best memories and friendships from the teams I have worked with, it really is more than just a job in the NHS.

So how can you help?

Maybe you are thinking of joining the NHS. Maybe you have never considered an NHS job. Maybe you’re someone who helps people with their career decisions.  Maybe you’re currently in training for an NHS career or already work in health and social care. Whatever your situation, we would like to hear your ideas and solutions to make our careers more attractive to you and others.

We also want to hear about any engaging or innovative ways you have seen from other sectors or industries to attract people so we can learn and innovate. 

I’m really looking forward to reading your ideas, experiences and solutions to these conversations on the Solving Together platform (to join in the conversations, you need to register, which takes just a moment).

Your insights will be used for planning in future years and developing tools to support the future workforce. This will help ensure that we can continue to provide high quality care to patients for many years to come.

This post was edited on Aug 19, 2024 by Leigh Kendall