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Workforce demand and capacity

Build the skills to plan your workforce with evidence and confidence 

The NHS cannot deliver the ambitions of the 10 Year Health Plan on headcount alone. Every service transformation from neighbourhood health centres to reduced hospital dependency demands a workforce that is designed around real demand, deployed at the right skill level, and planned.

This programme equips you to do exactly that. Across seven modules, you will build and apply a complete workforce design and planning case for a real service you choose. You leave with a plan you can take to decision makers.

Find out what you can expect, module details, and information about cost below.

Apply to the programme

What you can expect from the programme

Over seven sessions (five half days and one full day) you will work through the full cycle of workforce design and planning: from scoping and demand analysis, through capacity modelling and service diagnostics, to gap analysis, redesign options, and a presentation ready to take to your organisation. 

One service. All the way through

You choose a real service in Module one and return to it in every session. Every model, every analysis, and every discussion is based on that service. The output is not a series of exercises, it is a complete, evidence-based plan. 

Practical tools alongside AI-assisted thinking

Each module includes structured prompts you can take to any large language model to explore ideas and deepen your analysis. The programme treats AI as a thinking partner, valuable, but always secondary to your professional knowledge and judgement. 

Blonde haired woman

What you'll leave with

By the end of Module 7, you will have produced a complete workforce design and planning case, including: 

  • A scoped project brief and stakeholder map 

  • A demand and capacity baseline with appropriate modelling approach 

  • A capacity review with explicit, testable assumptions 

  • A service map showing how the pathway actually works 

  • Failure demand identified, traced, and quantified 

  • A gap analysis with the redesign levers most relevant to your service 

  • At least two redesign scenarios  

  • A presentation ready to take to your organisation's decision makers

Programme learning objectives

Understand

Understand the core principles and frameworks of workforce demand and capacity planning, including the NHS England Demand and Capacity Core Model, Theory of Constraints, and Failure Demand. 

Apply

Apply demand, capacity, and diagnostic models including skills/task mapping, the NASA Task Load Index, and pathway mapping to a real service to establish an evidence-based baseline. 

Analyse

Analyse the relationship between funded workforce, productive capacity, and service performance, distinguishing value demand from failure demand and identifying the true drivers of a service's capacity gap.  

Evaluate

Evaluate alternative workforce redesign options against evidence, assumptions, and organisational constraints to determine a preferred, defensible course of action.  

Create

Create a complete, evidence-based workforce design and planning case culminating in a compelling presentation that a real NHS service can take directly to decision-makers for action. 

FAQs

How much does the programme cost?

This programme is available to staff at both member and non-member organisations. 

  • If you work at an NHS Elect member organisation: The programme will cost six membership tokens (subject to approval from your account lead) or a discounted rate of £1,770 per person. 

  • If you work at a non-member organisation: The full price for this course is £1,947 per person. 

Who is this programme for?

This programme is for NHS leaders and managers who have responsibility for workforce or who want to build the skills to do so. It is relevant if you are:

  • A service manager, clinical lead, educator or operational leader planning or redesigning a team or service.
  • A workforce, HR, or OD professional supporting local planning processes.
  • Clinical leads, heads of profession, matrons and senior clinicians responsible for or leading services and teams.
  • A system leader who needs to make the case for workforce investment to finance or board audiences.

No prior experience of workforce modelling is required. You will need access to a real service and the willingness to apply every tool to it. 

What is expected of me during the programme?

To get the most from this programme, active participation between sessions is essential. Each module follows a structured pattern:

Before each session: You will complete preparatory work collecting real data about your service, reading key frameworks, and arriving with genuine questions. Preparation is not optional: the in-session time is for depth, challenge, and feedback, rather than starting from scratch

During each session: You will gain knowledge and skills working through structured exercises applying models and tools with a facilitator coaching and engaging in peer learning within groups.

Between sessions: You will consolidate your analysis, build out your planning case, and extend your work ready for the next module. The cumulative product of this between-session work is your complete planning case.

Is this aligned to the NHS Leadership and Management Framework?

This programme will be mapped against the newly released NHS Leadership and Management Framework

Programme content

Welcome to the programme

22 October, 1pm - 2pm

A short introductory session to meet your facilitators and find out what to expect during the programme.

Module 1: Readiness & foundations

4 November, 9:30am - 1:30pm

Most workforce planning projects fail not because of poor analysis but because of poor scoping. This module builds the discipline of getting the foundations right knowing the question you are trying to answer, who owns the decision, and what data you will need. 

Module 2: Demand & capacity models

2 December, 9.30am - 1:30pm

Demand is the most measurable part of workforce planning, but it is rarely as simple as a referral count. This module builds the skill of utilising a demand and capacity model, using data critically and selecting the right modelling approach for your service type. 

Module 3: Understanding capacity

16 December, 9:30am - 1:30pm

You cannot simply count your staff and call that your capacity. This module makes visible all the assumptions that sit between headcount and productive clinical time and shows you how to test and challenge them. 

Module 4: How the service actually works

13 January, 9:30am - 1:30pm

Numbers alone do not explain why a service is performing as it is. This module gives you two frameworks (Theory of Constraints and Failure Demand) to find the real drivers of performance and the hidden capacity being consumed by avoidable work before we look at the workforce.

Modules 5 & 6: Gap analysis & workforce redesign

3 February, 10am - 4pm (full day)

The morning brings together the analysis from Modules 2, 3, and 4 into a complete picture of the gap. The afternoon uses that picture to design the workforce response building at least two scenarios and reaching a preferred option with a clear, defensible rationale.

Module 7: Presenting & implementing change

24 February, 9:30am - 1:30pm

The best workforce plan fails if it cannot be communicated compellingly to the people who need to act on it. This module builds the skill of translating analytics into a story that lands and prepares you for the realities of implementation. 

Julie and Alice L Headshot

Meet our facilitators

NHS Elect's Workforce demand and capacity programme is run by Julie Combes (Director) and Alice Lundsten (Associate).

Julie began her NHS career as a paediatric intensive care nurse in 2000. Since 2010 she has been involved in workforce education and training undertaking senior leadership roles that support and advise health and care providers locally, regionally and nationally, more recently working for Health Education England.

Alice is a highly skilled quality improvement leader with over 15 years of healthcare experience. She specialises in system‑level transformation, demand and capacity modelling, and the use of data to drive sustainable service improvement. With a career spanning both the third sector and the NHS, Alice has consistently delivered improvements that enhance patient pathways, strengthen operational effectiveness and build capability across organisations.

 

Find out more about our team >

Need more information?

If you have any questions about the programme or would like to find out more about applying please drop us an email.

Contact us

Cancellation policy

If you find you need to cancel your place, please provide at least one month's notice prior to the welcome session of the programme.

In this case, we can defer your participation to a future cohort if dates are available.

If less than one month's notice is given, unfortunately you will forfeit your tokens or course fee.

We would be happy to accept a substitute delegate to ensure the place is not wasted.

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