Trained for Tomorrow: A Plan for the Future NHS Workforce

The Government has placed the NHS at the centre of its plans to reform health services, from expanding care in the community to modernising the workforce and improving patient outcomes. However, the NHS continues to face significant workforce shortages, alongside a growing demand for services, and regional inequalities. While universities, colleges, NHS employers, regulators, and government face increasing financial and structural barriers to workforce participation. Delivering on this reform will therefore depend on supporting both the education system that trains our future NHS professionals, and the system that develops them once they are in post. 

Policy Connect’s latest report, Trained for Tomorrow: A Plan for the Future NHS Workforce, explores the challenges facing the healthcare education pipeline and the action needed to ensure the NHS has the future workforce required to deliver on the Government’s ambitious 10 Year Health Plan. 

Trained for Tomorrow, published on 13 July 2026, follows a cross-party inquiry led by the Higher Education Commission and the All-Party Parliamentary Health Group and chaired by Kevin McKenna MP, Lord Philip Norton of Louth and Professor Kathryn Mitchell from University of Derby. The inquiry draws on evidence from across the health and education sectors, including universities, NHS organisations, professional bodies, regulators, students, educators, and sector experts.  

The report sets out the following 11 key practical, evidence-based recommendations to strengthen workforce planning, improve education and training pathways, and create a more resilient healthcare workforce for the future:  

• Establish a National Healthcare Workforce Development Forum.
• Strengthen regional workforce planning through Integrated Care Boards.  
• Develop a national strategy to grow the healthcare educator workforce.  
• Launch a national healthcare careers campaign.  
• Introduce an NHS student loan repayment reimbursement scheme.  
• Expand and improve healthcare degree apprenticeships.
• Create more flexible entry routes and study pathways into healthcare careers.  
• Support faster, more flexible curriculum innovation across healthcare education.  
• Improve regional coordination of clinical placements.  
• Expand and quality-assure the use of simulation-based learning.  
• Improve equitable access to continuing professional development (CPD). 

The Health Education and Training Inquiry was made possible through the support of the University of Derby, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), and iheed. The launch event was kindly sponsored by the University of Greenwich. 

If interested in contributing to further work on Education and Skills policy, please contact Rhiannon Tuckett-Jones (Rhiannon.Tuckett-Jones@policyconnect.org.uk).