Right Management research reveals doubts NHS has skills in place to carry out reforms.

July 5, 2011 - PRLog -- Research on behalf of Right Management reveals that 82 percent of Foundation Trust Managers said maintaining staff productivity during major change would be a challenge, followed by having the right skills available within the organisation (63 percent). The top challenge was maintaining standards of service (84 percent) – an issue impossible to tackle with an unproductive and unequipped workforce.

Foundation Trust Managers are sceptical that GPs have the necessary skills to manage commissioning responsibilities. On a scale of 0-10, with 10 being most important, managers scored financial management 7.7 as a skill needed by GPs in their new role, but rated GPs current abilities in this field as 4.9. While GPs rate their own abilities higher (6.2), it was still the area where GPs felt they most needed training.

Talent management is a low priority for Foundation Trust Managers as they prepare for change – the moment they most need to be paying attention to it. On a scale of 0-10, with 10 being most important, driving efficiency (8.4) and quality of services (8.2) were both identified as top priorities by Managers of Foundation Trusts as they prepare for change; developing a talent management strategy scored only 5.8. This dropped to 4.9 when asked what their priorities actually will be when reforms are implemented. This raises concerns that the NHS could suffer from a talent drain if strategies are not put in place to attract highly skilled workers or develop and retain current workers.

Maintaining an efficient and effective service was the top challenge for 90 percent of GPs surveyed, this was followed by helping patients understand the changes (79 percent) and effectively managing staff (73 percent).

Overall GPs are more optimistic about reform than Managers. More GPs think reform will lead to less bureaucratic decision-making (77 percent) than managers (40 percent) and the majority of GPs think there will be a better quality of service for patients (71 percent), opposed to just 35 percent of managers.  However, both GPs (65 percent) and Managers (53 percent) worry about privatisation.

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