Workforce research project The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Foundation Trust

Across West Norfolk, educational attainment is the lowest in the East of England and average weekly earnings are significantly lower than average. In Norfolk and Waveney, there are an estimated 3,300 open vacancies in NHS and social care, with a significant number of retirements on the horizon.

This project aims to bring partners together and develop a shared local plan for enabling access to employment opportunities. Research will map key workforce gaps that need addressing, current recruitment entry routes available and relative success in target populations.

The work will involve engaging with and understanding the most deprived communities’ experiences and views on health and care career pathways, and identifying relevant barriers and potential enablers. Some new approaches within target communities will be tested, to learn and inform future planning.

The project will leave local community, health and social care organisations with a collaborative plan to address the significant health inequalities in the local area by increasing the availability of good quality, secure employment in the most deprived neighbourhoods, promoting aspiration and education, and developing a more sustainable local workforce, leading to improvements in the quality and availability of local health and care. It will also look to address long-standing challenges with recruitment to critical health and care roles locally.

The project team hope that the work will contribute to new learning about approaches that link people to recruitment opportunities across the sector, neighbourhood-level approaches to targeting recruitment, engaging with communities to understand views on recruitment, and barriers and enablers to health care recruitment in deprived communities. 

Contact information

For more information about this project, please contact Carly West-Burnham, Director of Strategy, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Foundation Trust.