GuildHE and UUK submit joint response to the NHS 10-Year Health Plan.
On Monday 2 December, GuildHE submitted a joint response with Universities UK (UUK) to the NHS 10 Year Health Plan consultation. This submission is in our shared capacity as formal representatives of higher education institutions training the health and social care workforce, as well as on behalf of all our members as civic institutions that provide health and mental health support to their students and staff. We collectively championed the full diversity of higher education institutions, who are keen to lead and support the delivery of the 10-Year Health Plan.
Our key recommendations for the development of the 10-Year Health Plan are:
- Workforce training and development should be an essential component of the new 10-Year Health Plan with clear growth milestones and a whole-systems approach
The 10-Year Health Plan should preserve a workforce growth plan that addresses the key challenges that universities and the NHS face in workforce growth and development, including placement capacity, student interest in healthcare careers and burdensome regulatory processes. We also highlight that the 10-Year Health Plan should include the importance of higher-level apprenticeships, including Level 7 for advanced and specialist roles funded via the Growth and Skills Levy because they are effective in expanding the recruitment pipeline and opening healthcare careers to applicants from non-traditional background.
- NHS England should encourage tripartite partnerships between systems (ICBs), providers (hospital trusts) and the HE sector, fostering healthy collaboration dynamics
This cooperation should balance the expansion of clinical placement capacity and university provision planning to help address local needs, while also ensuring that health and social care become better integrated. Higher education institutions are at the forefront of driving the innovation that delivers productivity gains, including via commercialised research and by developing and implementing innovative teaching practices that respond organically to local and national health needs.
- Mental health should be a key priority in the 10-Year Health Plan including the introduction of a student health pathway
The number of accepted English applicants via UCAS declaring a mental health condition increased by 126.4% between 2019 and 2023, though this figure partially reflects changes to data collection. The NHS should consider a student pathway that is built on strong partnership between universities and local NHS services, to improve information sharing and prevention activities as well as to establish more effective responses to mental health crises.
GuildHE healthcare institutions are already key enablers
The proposed shifts to community-based and preventative healthcare supported by modern digital technologies can be achieved with specialist healthcare higher education. Many of these institutions also operate in rural, coastal, suburban and ‘cold spot’ areas of the country that, with the right support, could be transformative for these regions. Partnership is at the heart of all of our member institutions and many support student staff health and wellbeing through effective collaborations with other HEIs and local NHS services.
Community-based health and social care
Many of these institutions, such as Health Sciences University, Birmingham Newman University and the Northern College of Acupuncture, already deliver community clinical practices for the public at reduced cost with student, graduate and staff clinicians – this model has great potential to better utilise our HEIs to bring healthcare, mental health support and illness prevention closer to people’s homes at scale. Bringing this expertise into funded partnerships with the NHS has the potential to support community health outcomes, but also to provide young people with professional experience and increase trust in, and ambition to pursue, careers in the NHS.
Modernising NHS digital services
Our specialist, vocational and creative institutions have strong research, development and innovation outputs that can be applied to public service settings. They have deep expertise in advanced manufacturing, engineering and digital technologies and are producing research and innovation outputs that can support the NHS to modernise systems. Partnerships with institutions that are doing creative technology and design are also a huge enabler for the NHS to roll out new technology that can be intuitively adopted by the public. Many GuildHE creative institutions, working in creative technology, design, games design and special FX have untapped potential to contribute to the design of NHS products and services. For example, Arts University Bournemouth’s collaboration with Wessex Health Partners to redesign their health buses which increased engagement with minority communities.
Preventative healthcare
We make the case that to robustly provide community healthcare and relieve the UK’s reliance on hospitals, we need to better recognise and reward allied health practice. GuildHE institutions include occupational therapists, counsellors, early years nurses, physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, mental health professionals, speech and language therapists and sports therapists. In the education system, there is little reward for institutions that deliver this training and provision through funding, fee waivers or regulatory support. Excellent institutions that are delivering these programmes in rural and suburban regions where preventative care is vital due to levels of health or ageing populations are Health Sciences University in Bournemouth, Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln, Wrexham University Glyndwr, Bath Spa University in Chippenham, Birmingham Newman University in Bartley Green and the Northern College of Acupuncture in York.
Student Mental Health
University College Birmingham works closely with its local CAMHS to provide help with clinical governance of its services, inform service delivery to students and review student cases where an urgent care pathway is required, in partnership with a named university liaison contact. However, partnerships such as these are not systematic or adopted across the country.
We have raised that more effective partnerships with clusters of higher education institutions, such as the Greater Manchester Universities Mental Health Services, could be a helpful model. This could support the aim to move initial tests and ongoing treatments and therapies closer to the patient. Shared services could also open opportunities for a more efficient use of shared resources, in a time of financial constraint for HEIs and the NHS.
Existing practice within our GHE institutions, and our joint recommendations with UUK, reflect deep engagement across HE institutions in the development and delivery of healthcare education across the country. In order to ensure our institutions can continue to deliver to our NHS and community-focused healthcare provision by investing in the health and social care workforce, we also make a number of key short-term policy recommendations:
- The government should offer a clear commitment to a long-term workforce strategy that recognises universities and other HE institutions as a key delivery partner.
- The government should ensure there is sustainable funding for higher-level apprenticeships, including at Level 7. Any reforms to the Growth and Skills Levy must ensure that it continues to deliver across all ages and levels, while recognising the health service’s particularly strong need for high level skills.
- NHS England should enhance the guidance clarifying the responsibilities for workforce planning across ICBs and higher education institutions.
- The government should support the higher education sector to deliver the healthcare workforce by laying out long-term funding and capacity milestones necessary for expanding training capacity.
- The government should consider setting up regional task forces to coordinate the delivery of a long-term health workforce strategy that addresses local needs. These should bring together Regional Workforce Directors, local ICBs, HE and FE institutions, and local government (LAs or MCAs).
- The NHS should consider establishing a dedicated student pathway and ensure that Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are available for students.