| 14 October 2025
Behind every performance metric in the 2025 NHS Oversight Framework lies a familiar story: dedicated teams working under growing pressure, and the need to find smarter ways to plan, support, and develop the workforce.
Rather than focusing on rankings alone, the data helps highlight where workforce innovation can make the biggest difference and where practical, evidence-based approaches can help trusts build capacity, improve access, and deliver quality care.
Here are four key insights for NHS workforce leaders, with ideas for moving from insight to action.
1. Elective care backlogs show why workforce planning matters
At the end of July 2025, 61.3% of patients were waiting within 18 weeks of referral, far below the NHS operational standard of 92%. In the same period, 2.6% of patients had been waiting more than 52 weeks, against the national goal to reduce this to under 1% by March 2026.
This isn’t just a question of demand. It highlights the ongoing need to align workforce capacity, role design, and skills development with service priorities so trusts can reduce wait times in a sustainable way.
2. Workforce growth must go hand-in-hand with engagement and development
NHS workforce data shows a 2.5% year-on-year growth in full-time equivalent staff across all hospital and community health services, with over 1.37 million staff employed as of March 2025. Yet the advocacy sub-score from the NHS Staff Survey shows that only 60.8% of staff would recommend their organisation as a place to work in 2024, similar to 61.1% in 2023, but still six percentage points below 2020 levels.
Together, these trends highlight the importance of aligning workforce planning, role design, and career development so that capacity growth supports both staff experience and service outcomes.
3. Diagnostic and cancer targets underline the need for targeted workforce strategies
In July 2025, performanceon the 28-day faster diagnosis standard stood at 76.6%, meeting the current 75% target but falling short of the longer-term ambition for 80%. For the 62-day cancer treatment standard, performance was 69.2%, remaining well below the national 85% goal.
Meeting these standards will require capability frameworks that define the skills and roles needed, workforce modelling to align capacity with demand structured career pathways to retain expertise. Together, these approaches can help strengthen service resilience and support long-term workforce development.
4. Patient safety depends on anticipating demand and staffing needs
Fluctuating demand, seasonal pressures, and skill shortages continue to create risks for patient safety and service quality. The league tables reinforce the importance of scenario modelling, capacity planning, and the adoption of structured approaches such as our Six Steps Methodology to Integrated Workforce Planning® to anticipate demand and align staffing models with service priorities before pressures become crises.
Building the future workforce
In parallel, the 10-Year Health Plan outlines a strategic shift towards maximising productivity through digital innovation and optimising workforce capabilities to deliver more efficient and sustainable healthcare.
We know many organisations are asking the same questions:
- How do we close the gap between current performance and long-term workforce ambitions?
- Where should we focus role design, career development, and workforce modelling to build capacity and resilience?
- How can we turn national frameworks and ambitions into practical local strategies?
For organisations looking for practical case studies and proven approaches, our new resource offers deeper insights and support aligned to each domain to help turn these findings into action.
Book a short call with our workforce experts to discuss practical support tailored to your organisation’s context.