We encourage your ideas and submissions for this page. Please email whitepaper@nhsemployers.org.
Health and Social Care Bill
The Government's Health and Social Care Bill - the draft NHS reform legislation - began its journey through Parliament in January 2011.
Read our key extracts summary of the Bill which has details of the key clauses for employers and visit our Health and Social Care Bill web page for more information about the Bill itself.
And visit our latest news web page for details about the NHS Future Forum's recommendations to the Government on 13 June 2011, and NHS Employers' response.
White paper and related documents
The white paper, command paper and related documents are available on the Department of Health website.
The Operating Framework for the NHS in England 2011/12 and Sir David Nicholson’s letter to NHS chief executives, both published on 15 December 2010, are available on the DH's Operating Framework web page.
The Department of Health has also revised the Principles and Rules for Co-operation and Competition to reflect the content of the white paper. The revised guidance can be found on the Department of Health website.
Pay and pensions
For more details on the Budget proposals, including NHS pay, read our Budget 2010 FAQs for employers.
More information about the independent review of public pensions, chaired by Lord John Hutton, is available on our pension review page.
NHS Employers' information on redundancy arrangements and retirement and redundancy pitfalls is available on our redundancy pages.
To support trusts in meeting some of the challenges to achieve efficiency savings, a national Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme will run from mid- September until the end of October 2010. Further information is available on our pay and contracts pages.
Managing the transition and staff transfer
The Operating Framework for the NHS in England 2011/12 and David Nicholson's letter and accompanying annexes all contained updates for employers on how the transition will be managed. See our Operating Framework page for details and read our FAQs about the transition.
The national Social Partnership Forum’s web-based toolkit for employers and staff on employment standards for staff facing transfers can be found on our staff passport pages. The NHS Staff Passport will be updated to reflect the current situation and more details will be available soon.
The NHS Confederation's Primary Care Trust Network has produced several articles and responses on GP commissioning and managing the transition. It also includes a section on good ideas, real improvements, showcasing work that has led to improved services and increased efficiency. See the PCT Network website.
Staff engagement, talent and morale
Staff engagement is even more important in times of turbulence and change. It is closely linked to morale, productivity and performance. NHS Employers has a range of briefings and information, including a summary from our recent webinars, on staff engagement for tough times.
Commissioners, as the agents of change that may affect staff, also have a responsibility to engage staff under the NHS Constitution. How they should do this is set out in Annex B to the Procurement Guide for Commissioners of NHS-funded Services, more information can be found on our staff engagement pages.
Retaining good talent in a changing NHS and finding the right people to help the health service through the changes ahead puts talent management in the spotlight. Read our briefing and case studies on our talent management pages.
Health, work and well-being
The Boorman Review of NHS health and well-being showed that reducing sickness absence in the NHS by a third could save the NHS £555 million. See our online resource, NHS Well-being at work, for a comprehensive range of online resources to help you improve health and well-being in your workplace.
Our Back Pack also provides employers, staff and trade union representatives with a practical toolkit of information they need to facilitate a speedy return to work for staff suffering from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). It also provides guidance and information that will help to decrease MSDs in the workplace.
Mental health conditions, including stress, can be an increased risk during times of change and NHS Employers' mental health campaign, Open Your Mind, aims to reduce stigma and help staff to feel comfortable talking about mental health in the workplace. Visit the Open Your Mind website for campaign materials, case studies and staff videos.
Productivity
We have brought together an increasing body of research and evidence on NHS productivity. Find out about high impact actions for nursing and midwifery, making the most of frontline staff, electronic staff rostering, and more on our workforce productivity latest news pages.
The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement's productive series supports NHS teams to redesign services and ways of working. This releases staff time to care for patients, improving the quality of care while reducing costs. Find out more on the NHS Institute's website.
The Foundation for Nursing Studies launched a new Centre for Nursing Innovation in September 2010. It will provide a central resource for nurses, midwives and health visitors to access tools and information as well as variety of interactive areas to help improve patient care. Find out more from the Foundation for Nursing Studies website.
Preparing for economic recovery
Despite the scale of changes, employers in the NHS will need to look ahead and plan their workforce to meet future demands on the health service. In November 2009 NHS Employers published a briefing on Leading the NHS workforce through to recovery and an employers' checklist, which is still relevant now. Our turnaround case study from Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre is also packed with good practice for trusts looking to do more with less. See our Leading the NHS through to recovery page for details.
The NHS Confederation's recent Dealing with the downturn: using the evidence report look at the upsides and pitfalls of ideas about how to respond to the downturn, including providing care closer to home, managing long-term conditions to reduce costs, reducing variation, skill mix and substitution, organisational mergers, and integrating services.
NHS Confederation
For summaries and analysis of the white paper, including an interactive timetable and perspectives from the NHS Confederation networks, see the NHS Confederation's NHS reform web section.
Other opinion and analysis
NHS Evidence has compiled a page with a full suite of reports, analysis, news and commentary on the white paper. Read more on the NHS Evidence website.