The integrated urgent care (IUC) workforce is central to delivering high quality and safe care. Their contribution drives improvements, optimises service delivery and enables a quality, compassionate culture.

A Blueprint has been developed for IUC call centre workers to support the right skills, behaviours and competencies. It is the result of partnership working between NHS England, the IUC call centre workforce, commissioners and providers and is designed to help deliver the Integrated urgent care service specification to the right standards and quality levels.

The NHS 111 workforce blueprint in action

Watch this video to learn about the workforce blueprint and how it positively impacts NHS 111 services.

The NHS 111 workforce blueprint elements

Recruitment and retention

• IUC workforce governance guide – bringing together best practice from across the IUC professions, this guide describes what good support of clinical practice looks like. It provides assurance for providers, patients and healthcare professionals and mitigates against increased indemnity. The guide caters for the range of registered and non-registered staff working within IUC/NHS 111 call centres including in the CAS.
• IUC workforce mental health and wellbeing – staff mental health and wellbeing is a key factor in the development of a sustainable integrated urgent care/NHS 111 workforce. This resource collection supports mental health and wellbeing for the workforce.
• IUC workforce survey recommendations for managers – these recommendations were developed following a survey of NHS 111 workforce in 2016 to help managers ensure that staff satisfaction is addressed, and that staff are properly supported and able to provide the best care for patients.
• Career of choice: NHS 11 workforce blueprint – providing promotional tools, including case studies and an infographic, to enable providers and ambassadors to promote their work externally. This information can be used to encourage the potential future workforce to consider IUC/NHS 111 as a career of choice.
• Support for NHS 111 health advisor homeworking -provides non-mandatory guidance and practical advice to help NHS 111 providers with developing their homeworking offer for health advisors. It outlines the benefits of homeworking, highlights possible implications and offers solutions.

Training

• Accreditation and qualifications guide – provides employers with the information they need to map current job roles to appropriate accredited training or qualifications, including apprenticeship standards.
• Apprenticeship scheme: NHS 111 workforce blueprint – provides the information and apprenticeship training opportunities for all levels of staff in IUC / NHS 111 provider organisations and supports provider organisations establish and maintain their apprenticeship offering to their workforce.

Career development

• NHS 111 skills for health levels 2-6 – provides clearly defined roles, supported by competency-based job descriptions and person specifications for roles at Skills for Health Levels 2 to 6 operating within IUC / NHS 111 call centre services.
• NHS 111 skills for health levels 7-9 – outlines the person specifications, core and specialist competences for the registered workforce roles at Skills for Health Levels 7-9 within the IUC Clinical Assessment Service (CAS), to provide remote and direct patient contact, clinical supervision and support of non-registered staff.
• NHS 111 leadership development – summarises the opportunities for involving staff members within leadership programmes. It assesses which programmes are best suited to the workforce and makes recommendations on improving access and take-up of such programmes to ensure the necessary leadership skills to deliver high quality compassionate care.