Martin Dennys, deputy director programme supply at NHS England, Shaukat Ali Khan, govt CDIO at NHS West Yorkshire ICB, Amy Freeman, CDIO at College Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Belief, Nick O’Reilly, director of digital at NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB, and Karl Grundy, managing director at Digital Well being (Credit score: Digital Well being)
The NHS digital workforce plan could arrive too late to forestall the lack of important abilities throughout England’s built-in care boards (ICBs), NHS digital leaders have warned.
Talking at Digital Well being’s webinar on ‘Digital workforce wanted to ship the ten yr plan‘ on 5 December 2025, Martin Dennys, deputy director programme supply at NHS England, mentioned that the inclusion of digital roles within the 10 yr workforce plan, to be printed in spring 2026, marked a big shift.
He confirmed that modelling work had led to “expectations of a good quantity of progress wanted to help the ten yr workforce plan” and acknowledged that the “significant transfer into digital” would require “an quantity of digital abilities to try this even with productiveness instruments”.
Dennys mentioned that digital functionality should prolong throughout all the well being service and never be restricted to the “lower than 3% of us that do digital throughout the NHS”.
“Really the opposite 97% of the workforce additionally want to have the ability to use digital confidently and competently,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, panellists warned that the ten yr workforce plan could possibly be too late for the big numbers of ICB digital workers whose jobs are being positioned in danger via restructuring.
Amy Freeman, chief digital data officer (CDIO) at College Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Belief and chair of the Digital Well being Networks Medical Data Officer Advisory Panel, mentioned: “I believe we’re heading to probably haemorrhaging a big variety of individuals within the digital area and discovering ourselves with out the required assets.”
She added that after making individuals redundant there was a hazard of “spending a small fortune with KPMG and Deloitte on shopping for these companies and abilities again”.
Freeman additionally highlighted the “patchy” stage of digital abilities throughout the NHS, pointing to inconsistent medical informatics roles and uneven entry to coaching.
Whereas a number of regional and nationwide coaching presents exist, she mentioned that “there may be an excessive amount of alternative after which it turns into troublesome to know what the appropriate alternative is”.
“I believe that is the place tying it into job descriptions can be useful as a result of if we have been saying that to do that job, these are the skilled abilities you need to have and these are the coaching programs that may make it easier to acquire these skilled abilities – then swiftly you may map out your profession.”
Shaukat Ali Khan, executive CDIO at NHS West Yorkshire ICB, highlighted rising pressures on native groups.
He mentioned that organisations are “struggling with reference to the rising expectations on digital, knowledge and expertise and on the similar time with the assets which might be obtainable in spite of everything this restructuring”.
Nick O’Reilly, former digital director at Birmingham and Solihull ICB, mentioned {that a} unified competency and profession framework ought to concentrate on widening entry to digital roles.
“We have to be higher at eager about how we open up our occupation to individuals who have the talents however could not have a perceived set of educational {qualifications} which might be necessary,” he mentioned.
You’ll be able to watch the webinar on demand right here.
