At HTN, we interview a range of people – from NHS professionals to wider industry figures, digital transformation project managers to health tech suppliers.

Workforce is a topic that comes up a lot, whether it’s a conversation about recruitment and retention, digital literacy, digital inclusion, or digital confidence. Here, we’ll take a look at some of the key comments from our interviewees when it comes to the health and care workforce.

Henrietta Mbeah-Bankas, head of blended learning at Health Education England, on the core skills required for digital work 

“These skills are applicable across all sectors, across all professionals, so I would absolutely say that they are the ones that we all need to be able to either do digital at work or even carry out our day-to-day digital activity. We need to be able to manage and use data and information and manage content – that’s one of the domains on our capability framework, which everybody needs at some level.

“We need to be able to use digital skills for a variety of things – teaching others and learning, communicating and participating in the digital world, but also for collaboration. For example, Zoom – everyone is on it after the pandemic, and you need technical skills even for the basics like setting up your password.

“Then you need the ability to create, innovate and use digital or online processes for research. To be honest, that’s one area that even digital experts sometimes do not see as a required digital skill. But you absolutely do need that.

“In all of this, I think it’s important that we think about safety and well-being when we are online – having that awareness of whether or not your activity is safe and being able to maintain digital safety and well-being is crucial alongside all the other skills.”

Henrietta on what the industry needs most in order to improve digital literacy

“I always say we need three things to be in place. You need to pay attention to all three because if you only pay attention to one and not the other in any digital implementation, it doesn’t actually work.

“Firstly, you need to really address the needs of people. What skills have people got? Have we got the right people? If they’re in digital roles, have they got the specialist skills to be in that role?

“Then onto processes… sometimes we bring in all the nice technologies or all the training and skills, but people are not allowed to upload relevant apps or access relevant webpages on work devices. Process is important to bear in mind. As part of processes, you also need to think about culture. What culture have we got in place within this organisation that actually facilitates people being able to use digital? Do people feel that they are allowed to get it wrong sometimes, and do they have the confidence to say if they don’t understand something? 

“And then the third thing is the technology. If we train people and have all the right cultures and all the right processes in place, and yet the technology doesn’t do what it says on the tin… we’re going to put people off. So, we need the right technology in the right hands. We must consider who is using what, and whether it is the appropriate technology for them?”

Chris Mason, chief information officer at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, on engaging with the workforce

“We include clinicians and operational staff in the prioritisation process. We don’t gather as an IT function and decide where the focus of our staff is placed, we talk with divisions and get them to prioritise their pieces of work. Then a digital and clinician team sit down together to discuss what to prioritise, based on set criteria – what risks we are trying to mitigate, what benefits we are trying to deliver… the process has a lot of buy-in from the divisions and that has really helped us to focus efforts efficiently. 

“If people are invested and committed to ideas that they have helped prioritise, then when those ideas turn into projects, I think people tend to be fully committed and buy into them. Starting this right at the beginning and getting people engaged pays off in the long-term.

“I think in general; the digital field can face workforce challenges. We’re looking at how we can attract new talent to the team and transition staff over from other industries. Digital staff are in high demand. We like to grow our own where possible and in terms of progress, using myself as an example – staff can see that I’ve had the opportunity to move through the team, which I think sets a good example in terms of progression.

“We are committed to creating the best working environment where we can retain talent within the department, too. We got some new offices recently so as people are coming back in following the pandemic, they’ve got a good environment and I think that is definitely helping to attract people to come in and work together. The new branding, our clear strategy and sense of identity is another aspect of that, too.”

Lisa Emery, chief transformation, innovation and digital officer at NHS Sussex, on supporting the workforce experience 

“I get excited about the work that we can do collectively to make people’s care experience more joined up. It sounds very simple but it’s actually quite complex. It’s the work around bringing our partners together, like our social care colleagues, the voluntary sector, the emergency services.

“This work can really change the experience for our workforce, who can really struggle with the disjointedness of systems. It’s about making their working life much better and giving them time back to interact with people. For the people accessing our services, it’s about looking for ways to break down barriers and provide a more seamless experience.

“Looking to the future, there’s definitely a lot of exciting work to come with things like virtual care and augmented intelligence. But I think there’s a job of work for us to do first, to really help our workforce and our population experience care in a different way. That needs to be our immediate priority.”

Jeffrey Wood, deputy director of ICT at The Princess Alexandra NHS Foundation Trust, on developing digital across the workforce

 “We’re really fortunate at Princess Alexandra that our chief clinical information officer and head of digital nursing have joined us. Before them we found it difficult to get the information out to the right places, and to encourage people to use things.

“To support people with technology, we have set-up our equivalent to an Apple squad – we have our own tech bar that we have on a Tuesday and Thursday morning where anyone can drop in and ask any questions to the IT team in a nice lounge type environment. That’s made big difference.”