Insight – what did we learn from the Budget?
The recent Budget was significant for a number of reasons. Not only was it the first ever to be delivered by a female Chancellor, and a Labour government’s first in 15 years, but it also had plenty to say about healthcare.
What exactly, though, will it mean for the NHS and, as importantly, learning and development (L&D) within the organisation?
Let’s take a closer look at what the historic Budget could mean for your Trust.
What was announced?
- A £22.6bn increase in day-to-day health spending.
- A £3.1bn increase in capital spending, for this year and next.
- The funding needed to deliver an extra 40,000 elective appointments per week (and 2 million more appointments a year), as per the government’s manifesto promise.
- £1bn of health capital investment next year to address the backlog of repairs and upgrades and increase capacity for tens of thousands more procedures.
- A further £1.5bn for new beds in hospitals, new capacity for over a million additional diagnostic tests and new surgical hubs and diagnostic centres to speed up treatment times.
Is the devil in the detail?
All the above sounds great, right? At first glance, yes, but some commentators have questioned whether the numbers are quite as they seem at face value. So, will it be enough to truly make a difference?
In its post-Budget analysis, membership body NHS Confederation did an excellent deep dive on the numbers. They argued that the front-loading of the extra funding will, in part, be needed to pay for previously unfunded commitments like pay deals (estimated by the Nuffield Trust before the Budget to be around £4.8 billion) and funding existing deficits.
As a result, it’s not 100% clear yet how much health leaders will be able to spend on frontline service improvements.
From an L&D perspective, the nuance behind the headline numbers also makes it harder to know how much spare cash Trusts will have to put towards continuous development and training for staff.
Given what has happened in the past, it seems likely that L&D will be put on the non-priority list – as ‘more important’ areas are protected and ringfenced.
Once again, we must make the argument as to why this is a missed opportunity. Investing now will help improve performance for the long-term, meaning the NHS is in a better position to start reducing waiting lists and meeting the targets set by the government. Getting your teams up to speed, upskilling your staff, boosting their productivity and morale – all of these things can be massively enhanced by investing appropriately in L&D and the healthcare leaders of the future.
The government has talked plenty about the 40,000 extra appointments a week they believe will help to finally bring down waiting lists, but to ensure this can happen all the structures, processes and patient pathway management systems need to be in place and functioning smoothly. Giving your managers and other staff the skills they need to make this possible will pay back in spades.
Reaping the rewards of investment
