"Thanks to John Rogers and Skills for Health for inviting me to speak today.
"This is an event close to my heart for a number of reasons:
- as Minister for the East Midlands (EM) it relates specifically to our region and impacts on our vision to become a 'top 20 region in Europe' by 2010
- it concerns an area (health) that is important to us all - as individuals; as a region; as a nation
- as well as involving the NHS and private healthcare sectors it also incorporates the voluntary healthcare sector (one of my other hats is as Minister for the Third Sector)
- it covers an area (skills) with which I am very familiar - having been closely involved in setting the agenda for Sector Skills Councils (John's introduction just brought it all flooding back to me!)
"Skills are critical to the health and prosperity of our nation, but as a region we face a number of specific challenges:
"The need to raise skill levels across the board (NVQ4 East Midlands 28.1 per cent compared to UK 31.1 per cent - percentage of those with no qualifications 10.1 per cent EM compared to 9.7 per cent)
- an increasing demand for high level skills (EM has been one of England's fastest growing regional economies in the last three years 6.2 per cent between 1996 and 2006 - 1.6 per cent greater than England over all figure)
- a growing population - the population of the East Midlands is expected to grow by almost 250,000 people between 2007 and 2017 and by another 250,000 by 2028
- an ageing population - East Midlands has a higher percentage of people of retirement age than the England average (19.1 per cent EM compared 18.6 per cent England) at a time when the number of pensioners in the UK outnumber that of children
- and with the working age population projected to fall by 12 per cent between 2000 and 2050
"In response to these demands:
"The size of the health sector workforce has already grown by 6.8 per cent in the last 12 months. As at 2007, there were 149,033 people employed within the healthcare sector in the East Midlands.
"NHS East Midlands manages the performance of some 23 Trusts; including five Mental Health and three Foundation Trusts; nine Primary Care Trusts (PCT) and the East Midlands Ambulance services.
"There are approximately 115 independent organisations registered with the Healthcare Commission in the East Midlands and a further 1,961 voluntary sector registered charities with activities in health and well-being.
"To ensure we continue to offer the highest levels of patient care and respond to service requirements in our region, we must all collaborate to identify the skills needs, address the gaps, nurture our talent and make the most of existing skills and competences. Only then can we ensure our region has a highly skilled, occupationally competent and flexible healthcare workforce it needs.
"The benefits are great - the better skilled our healthcare workforce is - the better health our region will enjoy.
"With a population in the East Midlands of over 4.2 million this is no mean feat.
"And there are challenges too. The regional Labour Market Intelligence report also being launched here today highlights a number of health issues faced by our region, in particular:
- coronary heart disease - one of the major causes of lower life expectancy in many local authorities in the East Midlands
- cancer - which is one of the biggest killers in the East Midlands
"The report identifies that the life expectancy rates for both male and female are below the East Midlands Government Office Region average in Nottingham City PCT and Leicester City PCT. It highlights some variations between genders too. For example:
- the highest prevalence of disease for men in the East Midlands is: coronary heart disease, other cancers, stroke, lung cancer and other cardiovascular disease
- the highest prevalence of disease for women in the East Midlands is: coronary heart disease, stroke, other cancers, other cardiovascular disease and pneumonia
"To help address these challenges we need a highly skilled and flexible healthcare workforce. Having the right skills in the right place at the right time can be no more fundamental than when people's lives are at stake - which is why the skills within the healthcare sector are arguably the most important skills of all.
"But if we are to ensure we have the skills we need for the future we need to act now.
"Estimates suggest that, by 2016, the NHS in the East Midlands region will need to replace approximately:
- 59 per cent of professionally qualified clinical staff such as nurses, physiotherapists etc.
- 63 per cent of clinical support staff
- 60 per cent of NHS infrastructure staff - including administrative and clerical personnel and managers
"Not only do we need to unlock existing potential and nurture the skills we already have, we need to attract young people - through initiatives such as Apprenticeships and the new 14-19 Diploma in Society, Health and Development, due to be introduced this September - and we need to retain the skills of the newly qualified workforce in the NHS, independent and voluntary healthcare sectors.
"This isn't a short-term fix - we need to do this for the long term benefit of the whole region.
"That's why this event is so important:
- it marks the start of an employer-driven approach to local strategic workforce planning
- it showcases best practice in other areas - already resulting in reduced length of stay; improved bed utilisation; reduction in recruitment costs; improved multi-disciplinary team-working and better patient care
- it represents the beginning of a collaborative process that will help reshape the region's healthcare workforce in line with patient need
- and it kicks off an ongoing consultation to help ensure that the East Midlands' healthcare workforce benefits from better jobs, better skills and better health - enabling our region's residents to do the same
"To this end, I urge you to encourage those responsible for workforce planning and development within your organisations to collaborate fully and frankly with Skills for Health. Only by working openly together can we help ensure we have ongoing access to the healthcare provision our region needs.
"Thank you for your time."
