I’ve worked in health and social care long enough to know that we’re not short on data. We can talk all day about vacancy rates, agency spend and turnover. But here’s the thing: naming the problem isn’t the same as solving it.
According to Unison, two-thirds of nurse shifts are now understaffed – a 63% jump in just a year. That’s not just a stat; that’s maternity units under pressure, rehabilitation services stretched thin and staff morale hanging by a thread.
The NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan rightly shines a light on recruitment and retention but it still leans too heavily on outdated workforce models – ones built around roles rather than real capabilities. We’re still treating staff like interchangeable “slots” on a rota. And that needs to change.
Let me paint a picture. Think of the temporary workforce like a balloon: agency staff on one side, bank staff on the other. Every time we push down on agency spend, the pressure doesn’t disappear, it just bulges out elsewhere. The system shifts, it doesn’t stabilise.
The real fix? We need to stop obsessing over headcount and start mapping the actual skills we have in the system. Only then can we deploy people in smarter, more flexible ways, ways that reduce dependency on traditional temporary labour and help teams thrive, not just survive.
When organisations adopt a skills-first approach, things start to shift. You begin to unlock hidden potential through targeted training, build multi-skilled teams that ease pressure and boost service delivery, and, perhaps most importantly, people stay, because they can see a clear career path and a future worth investing in.
As I often say: retention isn’t a metric. It’s a movement. If we want people to stay, we need to create environments where they choose to. That means building truly inclusive teams where diverse perspectives are not just welcomed but actively valued, making continuous learning part of everyday work and using data in a smarter, more proactive way.
It’s about understanding the skills gap within the organisation, which in turn stops you going out to market for that one person everyone’s after. Instead, you’re upskilling across a wider portion of your workforce, building resilience and agility.”
Taking our experience with providers in the care home sector, where data from staff surveys and our own analytics platform are combined to create real-time insight into workforce dynamics. That includes everything from understanding why people are leaving, to identifying common themes, to running skills gap analyses that support internal mobility. This isn’t just good workforce planning – it’s smart, sustainable practice. It creates match hiring, helps teams adapt faster and ultimately reduces reliance on costly temporary fixes.
It’s time to prioritise system value over short-term savings. Cutting costs in one area often just shifts the burden to another. What we need is long-term thinking with workforce models that are sustainable, data-driven and rooted in real human capability.
At Matrix, we’re proud to be working with NHS trusts and care providers to build these systems. We’re using advanced analytics and skills-based frameworks to create adaptive, future-ready workforces because that’s what the moment demands.
So, let’s build a system designed for people. Incremental tweaks won’t get us where we need to go. It’s time for a bold shift, one that moves us beyond job titles and staffing spreadsheets and instead builds around what people can actually do.
Skills-first isn’t just another workforce strategy. It’s the foundation for a more resilient, equitable and effective health and care system – one where both patients and professionals can thrive. The future of our workforce isn’t in roles. It’s in capabilities so let’s start building from there.
Author: Andrew Curry, Client Engagement Director for Health and Social Care, Matrix Workforce Management Solutions
