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How to prepare your workforce for NHS reform

Reform is coming – is your workforce ready?

The NHS 10-year plan sets out ambitious targets to reshape the way care is delivered, shifting from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from treating illness to preventing it. At its core, this transformation depends on people: how we support them, listen to them and motivate them to lead change.

Workforce readiness is no longer just about filling rotas. The plan sets clear expectations for engagement, culture and leadership. These will be tracked, reported and linked to quality outcomes. Leaders who act early will be best placed to meet the new standards and deliver on the plan’s promise.

Understand what’s changing

The 10-year plan brings three big shifts for workforce leaders:

  • Rising engagement expectations – NHS staff will be expected to have greater autonomy, access to AI and digital tools, and clear opportunities to contribute to improvement. Staff voice will be measured and acted upon.
  • Culture under the spotlight – cultural measures will be tracked and reported quarterly, meaning leaders must be able to evidence progress in real time.
  • Digital as the default – modern digital tools will move from “optional extras” to essentials, streamlining workflows and connecting teams across sites and settings.

Wellbeing must be the foundation of reform

The 10-year plan highlights the need for digitally enabled, high-performing teams, but evidence shows this will not be possible without a strong focus on staff wellbeing. As Sharon Nash, Senior Consultant at The King’s Fund, notes in her blog ‘From burnout to belief: reflections on reforming the NHS from within’: “Staff wellbeing is not a peripheral concern; it is the keystone of care.”

Burnout, exhaustion and systemic neglect are already widespread. More than 40% of NHS staff report feeling unwell due to work-related stress, and many feel unable to deliver the standard of care they aspire to. Without urgent action, the workforce risks reaching breaking point.

Placing wellbeing at the centre of reform is not a “soft” option – it is a strategic imperative. Healthier staff deliver better care, stay longer and cost less. Embedding wellbeing into workforce planning and culture is the only way the NHS can achieve sustainable change.

Five steps to prepare your workforce

  1. Create safe spaces for regular feedback
    Frontline realities hold the key to better care. Embedding feedback channels into daily workflows ensures concerns, ideas and suggestions are heard and acted on quickly. Platforms like ImproveWell make listening continuous, not a one-off exercise.
  1. Empower teams to solve local problems
    When staff are trusted to lead improvements in their own areas, change happens faster and lasts longer. Reducing barriers to speaking up and giving teams the autonomy to act fosters ownership and innovation.
  1. Support responsive, data-informed leadership
    Leaders need more than anecdotal feedback. They need live, actionable insights. Real-time data helps managers spot challenges early, have better coaching conversations and target support where it’s needed most.
  1. Prioritise wellbeing and motivation
    Recognition tools, streamlined processes and reduced administrative burdens all protect against burnout and boost morale. A motivated workforce is more productive, more engaged and better equipped to deliver high-quality care.
  1. Get ready to report on engagement
    With new cultural and quality standards on the horizon, robust engagement data will be essential. ImproveWell enables health and care organisations to track engagement and improvement metrics in real time, making it easier to evidence progress to regulators and commissioners.

The risks of waiting

Delaying action on workforce readiness carries real risks: missed performance targets, lower staff morale, higher turnover and reduced patient satisfaction. Once new reporting requirements are in place, catching up will be harder and more costly.

Reform-readiness means people-readiness

The organisations that will thrive under the NHS 10-year plan will be those that take practical steps now to engage and empower their workforce. ImproveWell gives leaders the tools to adapt, listen and support staff in delivering high-quality, sustainable care.

If you want your teams to be ready for reform, start by making sure your people feel heard, valued and equipped to lead change.