Recruitment and retention plans
Absence of clear implementation timetables with measurable deliverables for recruitment and retention strategies.
Source spread
Where this theme appears
This theme appears across 13 independent accountability sources, so the source mix matters as much as the headline total.
16 inquiry recs
1 PFD report
325 committee recs
12 HSSIB recs
22 CQC actions
12 HMICFRS recs
1 IOPC rec
11 NAO recs
1 PHSO rec
140 IMB recs
1 Scottish FAI
2 detention investigation recs
3 LGO/SPSO decisions
Browse by source
Source-grouped records are useful for tracing where a concern came from. Large sections show the 50 strongest matches for that source; counts still show the full theme total.
Inquiry recommendations(16)
R98 — AHP and social care workforce recruitment
Recommendation: The DoH must devise ways to recruit and retain more allied health professionals and social care staff in the community for autistic people and people with learning disabilities.
Response Pending
R9 — Integrated workforce plans
Recommendation: Each facility or service should have an integrated workforce plan that includes all allied health professionals (AHPs) and all staff involved in patient care. This should be based upon the assessed needs of the service user and must include protected …
Response Pending
8 — Develop recruitment and retention strategy
Recommendation: The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust should identify a recruitment and retention strategy aimed at achieving a balanced and sustainable workforce with the requisite skills and experience. This should include, but not be limited to, seeking links …
Gov response: [A] Recommendations for the Trust Recommendations for the Trust: 1-18 1. The Morecambe Bay Investigation found that there were serious failures in clinical care at University Hospitals Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, causing avoidable harm …
Accepted
R102 — Centralised workforce intelligence function
Recommendation: DoH should establish a comprehensive, centralised workforce intelligence function, similar to those in the rest of the UK, within 12 months of the publication of this report. The learning disability service model must include a fully funded, comprehensive workforce model, …
Response Pending
R73 — Band 4 associate practitioners
Recommendation: Consideration should be given to enhancing the post of healthcare assistant by creating Band 4 associate practitioners in both hospital and community settings in order to increase the skills of those providing the majority of direct care, and also to …
Response Pending
COVID-M3.5 — Scale Up Urgent and Emergency Care
Recommendation: The UK government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive, in conjunction with organisations responsible for delivering services, should plan for surge capacity in urgent and emergency care during a pandemic. Plans must ensure that there is sufficient workforce …
Gov response: No formal response published by this government.
Unknown
BRIS-95 — Review incentives for senior clinicians in managerial roles, enabling return to practice
Recommendation: The professional and financial incentives for senior clinicians to undertake full-time senior managerial roles should be reviewed: the aim should be to enable senior clinicians to move into a full-time managerial role, and subsequently, if they so wish, to move …
Unknown
F191 — Recruitment for values and commitment
Recommendation: Healthcare employers recruiting nursing staff, whether qualified or unqualified, should assess candidates' values, attitudes and behaviours towards the well-being of patients and their basic care needs, and care providers should be required to do so by commissioning and regulatory requirements.
Gov response: The government published "Hard Truths: the Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777) on 19 November 2013, responding to all 290 recommendations of the Francis Report. This followed an initial response "Patients First and Foremost" …
Accepted
20 — National review of maternity care in challenging circumstances
Recommendation: There should be a national review of the provision of maternity care and paediatrics in challenging circumstances, including areas that are rural, difficult to recruit to, or isolated. This should identify the requirements to sustain safe services under these conditions. …
Gov response: 7. We accept this recommendation. A review of maternity care, which will also consider neonatal care and paediatrics in the context of maternity care, is underway. 8. In its report to Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group, …
Accepted
BRIS-97 — Differentiate revalidation for managers maintaining clinical practice and those restarting after retraining
Recommendation: To facilitate the movement of clinicians in and out of managerial positions, the proposed systems for the revalidation (and re-registration) of doctors, nurses and professions allied to medicine should distinguish between professionals who are managers and also maintaining a clinical …
Unknown
HIDD-93 — Adequately staff and resource the Railway Inspectorate for increased responsibilities
Recommendation: Government shall ensure that the Railway Inspectorate is adequately staffed and resourced to match the increased responsibilities incurred as a result of recommendations made in this Report.
Unknown
21 — Consider extending review to other rural services
Recommendation: The challenge of providing healthcare in areas that are rural, difficult to recruit to or isolated is not restricted to maternity care and paediatrics. We recommend that NHS England consider the wisdom of extending the review of requirements to sustain …
Gov response: 11. We accept this recommendation in principle. NHS England are establishing Vanguard sites to explore how new models of care can address the challenges faced by services that are rural, geographically isolated or difficult to …
Accepted
FENN-129 — Bring Railway Inspectorate to full establishment to fulfil safety responsibilities.
Recommendation: The Railway Inspectorate must be brought up to establishment to carry out its responsibilities under section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Unknown
MACP-66 — Require HMIC to inspect and report on police minority ethnic staff progress
Recommendation: That HMIC include in any regular inspection or in a thematic inspection a report on the progress made by Police Services in recruitment, progression and retention of minority ethnic staff.
Unknown
MACP-65 — Facilitate initiatives to increase qualified minority ethnic recruits in police services
Recommendation: That the Home Office and Police Services should facilitate the development of initiatives to increase the number of qualified minority ethnic recruits.
Unknown
CR3 — Regular assessment of assets and resources
Recommendation: There should be regular assessments by HM Coastguard of the adequacy of the available assets and human resources to respond to both current and reasonably foreseeable levels of small boat activity. Where the forecast level of resourcing need cannot be …
Gov response: HMCG recognises the importance of regular assessments and has the following operational measures in place for the review of assets: • SAR asset availability (surface vessels and aircraft) is assessed daily, and every watch assesses …
Accepted
Select committee recommendations(325)— showing 50 strongest matches
#57 —
Recommendation: The Legal Aid Agency must monitor firms who have withdrawn their services due to the breach and provide incentives for them to remain in the sector. This could include direct financial assistance in line with our recommendations from chapter three. …
Response Pending
#53 —
Recommendation: In the short term, the Ministry of Justice should reform the Legal Aid Agency’s objectives and delegated authorities so that it is responsible not only for processing applications and controlling error, but also for monitoring legal need, identifying unmet demand …
Response Pending
#52 —
Recommendation: Administrative and audit requirements imposed on providers further damage their economic viability and are disproportionate for established providers. Practitioners under the legal aid scheme are required to undertake significant tasks to fulfil audit and contractual requirements which are unpaid. (Conclusion, …
Response Pending
#46 —
Recommendation: Access to family legal aid is essential to the government’s ambition to halve violence against women and girls. Current eligibility rules, provider shortages and uneconomic remuneration mean that survivors of domestic abuse are often unable to secure representation when they …
Response Pending
#45 —
Recommendation: To preserve the principle of equality of arms, legal aid barristers should be paid comparable rates to state barristers in claims against public authorities. In order to prevent cannibalisation from other civil legal aid fee schemes, non-inquest categories must also …
Response Pending
#43 —
Recommendation: Expansion of legal aid to inquests is positive, but there may not be capacity in the system for sufficiently qualified and experienced lawyers to do this work. (Conclusion, Paragraph 127)
Response Pending
#38 —
Recommendation: The government must take an active role to plug gaps in legal aid provision. The Lord Chancellor should use their powers under section 2(2) of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 to either direct grants to …
Response Pending
#34 —
Recommendation: As part of our above recommendations on workforce strategy and improving service provision, the Ministry of Justice must: a. Confirm how it monitors whether it has sufficient legally aided mediation capacity to meet demand; b. Produce an assessment of the …
Response Pending
#33 —
Recommendation: The government must act now and intervene directly to improve service provision in areas of law, and geographical regions, that are underserved. Options include, but are not limited to: a. Delegating authority to the Legal Aid Agency to offer greater …
Response Pending
#28 —
Recommendation: The government should use its work on civil legal aid demand to target its interventions by area and category of law. In line with criminal legal aid, the government should directly fund training schemes for the most underserved categories of …
Response Pending
#27 —
Recommendation: The government should, within 12 months, publish a civil legal aid workforce strategy. This should cover recruitment, retention, training capacity, succession planning and regional shortages. (Recommendation, Paragraph 88)
Response Pending
#26 —
Recommendation: The recent government approach of targeted intervention in particular areas of civil law is insufficiently proactive, meaning that future provision of civil legal aid is not on a stable footing. The government is not thinking 59 strategically about its future …
Response Pending
#25 —
Recommendation: Insufficient numbers of young lawyers are undertaking legally aided work in civil and family law. Firms lack capacity to train new staff or invest in new technology. (Conclusion, Paragraph 86)
Response Pending
#23 —
Recommendation: Uplifting other civil legal aid fee schemes in line with housing and immigration increases is the minimum requirement to arrest the current lack of service provision and ongoing decline in the provider base. Fee increases should be retrospective, meaning they …
Response Pending
#21 —
Recommendation: Civil legal aid rates are fundamentally uneconomical for providers, particularly in non-housing and non-immigration and asylum categories. Urgent action, of a greater scale than currently offered by the government, is required to retain even current levels of supply. (Conclusion, Paragraph …
Response Pending
#14 —
Recommendation: Under the umbrella of the CLAAB, or otherwise, the government should set targets for recruitment and retention of criminal legal aid lawyers and take action if these are not met. These targets should be set at levels which will ensure …
Response Pending
#11 —
Recommendation: Available evidence suggests that the financial position of legal aid providers has not improved since the report of our predecessor committee in 2021. It has broadly deteriorated further. There is significant evidence that criminal legal aid rates are fundamentally uneconomical …
Response Pending
#10 —
Recommendation: The government should publish, within six months, its assessment of the number and geographical distribution of duty solicitors required to provide sustainable police station and magistrates’ court coverage. Where schemes fall below that level, the Lord Chancellor should use their …
Response Pending
#7 —
Recommendation: The position of the criminal duty solicitor scheme is dire, increasing the risk of miscarriages of justice and negatively impacting the government’s ability to reduce the courts backlog. (Conclusion, Paragraph 34)
Response Pending
#38 —
Recommendation: We recommend that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government work together to develop targeted and sustained support to increase the 54 number of conservation officers and heritage specialists within local …
Response Pending
#24 —
Recommendation: In its response to this report, the government should set out a clear, cross-departmental strategy for ensuring a secure and sustainable domestic talent pipeline in the key scientific and technological capabilities it has identified as critical to the UK’s future …
Response Pending
#5 —
Recommendation: We recommend that ministers and VisitBritain reconsider the decision to reduce the size of its business events team. (Recommendation, Paragraph 16)
Response Pending
#4 —
Recommendation: We are particularly concerned to hear about a reduction in the size of the team in VisitBritain responsible for supporting and promoting business events. It is a counterproductive move at a time when the focus should be on the economic …
Response Pending
#10 —
Recommendation: In response to this report, DWP should outline what assessment it has made of workforce capacity for Connect to Work. This should include whether workforce planning is in place, whether it thinks there are enough appropriately trained people to deliver …
Response Pending
#9 —
Recommendation: The effectiveness of employment support depends on the quality and expertise of those delivering it. Despite a shared skill base across programmes, providers continue to face challenges in recruiting and retaining staff with specialist expertise, reflecting wider labour market pressures. …
Response Pending
#8 —
Recommendation: Early feedback from local authorities demonstrated confidence in their ability to source, retrain and redeploy staff, demonstrating strong local engagement. However, there is some misalignment between the readiness reported by local authorities at a commissioning level and the experience of …
Response Pending
#27 —
Recommendation: The Department told us that, as a result, the speed of board appointments had got slightly quicker. A number of the October 2025 vacancies had been filled, with vacancies across museums’ and galleries’ boards falling to 27, representing a total …
Response Pending
#26 —
Recommendation: The Department reiterated that, despite the vacancies, all the museums’ and galleries’ boards had been quorate.60 However, it acknowledged that the appointments process had been too slow and that addressing the delays was on its agenda as it sought to …
Response Pending
#25 —
Recommendation: We therefore asked the Department why it was taking so long to get boards up to the level they should be. It assured us that the delays had not been due to a lack of resources within its own appointments …
Response Pending
#24 —
Recommendation: Museums’ and galleries’ boards play an important role in ensuring the financial resilience of the museums and galleries. As at 9 October 2025, there were 34 vacancies across the 15 museums’ and galleries’ boards, representing a total vacancy rate of …
Response Pending
#15 —
Recommendation: There are indications that some museums and galleries may not have the financial management capability to manage future risks. For example, many have experienced significant churn in their senior financial leadership in recent years, while some have struggled to produce …
Response Pending
#50 —
Recommendation: The government must ensure that any new processes for recruiting magistrates focus on recruiting groups that are currently not well represented in the magistracy. (Recommendation, Paragraph 173)
Response Pending
#11 —
Recommendation: The Ministry of Justice and HMCTS must publish quarterly statistics on magistrate recruitment, aligned with reporting to the Justice Performance Board. (Recommendation, Paragraph 44) Appeals from the magistrates’ court
Response Pending
#20 —
Recommendation: We asked the Department when it would be sensible for us to assess the work going on to improve productivity and whether it had been successful. The Department suggested that coming back to this issue in a year’s time would …
Response Pending
#16 —
Recommendation: Following the evidence session, in May 2026, the Department announced a plan of action to clear the backlog of applications by September 2027. It said that it would recruit an additional 480 case staff to process the higher volume of …
Response Pending
#15 —
Recommendation: We asked the Department when it expected to meet its target of processing applications in 25 working days. The Department told us that it considered the target was achievable and that it would be able to meet it once the …
Response Pending
#14 —
Recommendation: The Department told us that its plan was to arrest the growth in the applications backlog over the next few months, as it increased the number of staff working on the scheme, and then for the backlog to be back …
Response Pending
#8 —
Recommendation: Many of the people who provided written evidence described waiting periods of several months, and in some cases over a year, between applying for support and receiving a decision or having support put in place. Some reported being unable to …
Response Pending
#4 —
Recommendation: The Department does not know how many cases its case managers can feasibly process in a day, which hampers its workforce planning. Based on a 2021 work study, the Department expected its case managers to be able to process 2.8 …
Response Pending
#2 —
Recommendation: The Department’s expectation that it will take at least 18 months to clear the applications backlog means hardship for individuals and businesses will continue for some time. The backlog of applications for Access to Work support has built up over …
Response Pending
#36 —
Recommendation: We call on the Ministry of Justice to increase its support for the staff of the Probation Service in Wales. The upcoming strategic review of probation should be accompanied by a review of the service’s staff numbers, pay and working …
Response Pending
#16 —
Recommendation: We recommend that the Ministry of Justice meet with the Welsh justice unions representing prison staff in Wales to identify the main barriers to recruiting and retaining staff. These concerns should be addressed as soon as possible through investment in …
Response Pending
#26 —
Recommendation: The Department said that ideally it would want to know which of the measures it has taken to improve recruitment and retention are having which of the effects. It has not, however, analysed this. Instead, the Department said it should …
Response Pending
#24 —
Recommendation: Initiatives that have helped improve retention include a new housing strategy, wraparound childcare and improved pay, and the Department particularly flagged the importance of housing.46 Day-to-day maintenance and servicing of the estate has begun to improve, albeit from a very …
Response Pending
#23 —
Recommendation: Data indicates that the time taken to recruit new personnel has fallen. Overall, the average time between someone applying to join and them starting basic training reduced from 496 days in 2023 to 290 days in 2024, and the Department …
Response Pending
#22 —
Recommendation: After many difficult years with both recruitment and retention, the latest public statistics for the year to October 2025 point to a corner being turned, with the number of people joining the Armed Forces exceeding the number leaving. All three …
Response Pending
#6 —
Recommendation: The Department does not know whether a recent improvement in recruitment and retention is a result of changes it has made, or whether it can sustain these improved trends. After many difficult years for both recruitment and retention, the latest …
Response Pending
#9 —
Recommendation: Defra and the RCVS should, within 18 months, begin work with veterinary schools to develop and implement sector wide guidance on contextual and flexible admissions. This should: • support consistent use of contextual offers and alternative access routes; • encourage …
Response Pending
#8 —
Recommendation: While high academic standards in veterinary school admissions are justified, we are concerned that current entry routes may unintentionally exclude applicants who would excel in the profession. It takes more than academic excellence at 18 to be a good vet, …
Response Pending
#4 —
Recommendation: The veterinary profession remains reliant on international recruitment to fill critical roles, particularly in public health and official veterinary services. While international vets have made a vital contribution, this “learned dependency” has masked underlying weaknesses in domestic workforce planning and …
Response Pending
HSSIB safety recommendations(12)
Mental health: attempted suicide while under the care of community services
Organisational support for protected time, resources and assistance for staff to mitigate and respond to the distress and demands they experience in their role.
Area of Improvement
Oxygen issues during the COVID-19 pandemic
It may be beneficial if national NHS recruitment and training programmes for engineering and estates professionals were developed to address existing challenges with the estates and facilities workforce.
Safety Observation
Medicine omissions in learning disability secure units
HSIB recommends that NHS England and NHS Improvement develops the ongoing work to improve the retention of learning disability nurses, in line with the intent of the All-England plan for learning disability nursing.
Safety Recommendation
Workforce and patient safety: temporary staff - integration into healthcare providers — HSSIB
How do you ensure that you are clearly advertising the skills required of a temporary worker to fill a rota gap?
Learning Prompt
The diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy
There is insufficient capacity to meet the demand for sonography if early pregnancy units are to deliver a seven-day-a-week service. It may be beneficial for NHS England/Improvement and Health Education England to carry out a workforce review to identify a …
Safety Observation
Variations in the delivery of palliative care services to adults
Include palliative and end of life care in strategic workforce plans to ensure staffing of services is appropriately capable and can provide the capacity needed to meet demand.
Safety Action
Variations in the delivery of palliative care services to adults
HSIB recommends that NHS England commissions palliative and end of life care career pathways, ensuring that they include staff from the allied health professions, in order to build specialist workforce capacity.
Safety Recommendation
Mental health: investigating under the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)
Organisational support for protected time, resources and assistance for staff to mitigate and respond to the distress and demands they experience in their role.
Area of Improvement
The role of clinical pharmacy services in helping to identify and reduce high-risk prescribing errors …
It is recommended that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, supported by NHS England and NHS Improvement, should provide guidance on models of hospital clinical pharmacy provision. The guidance should provide information on the models’ ability to enhance safety and healthcare resilience …
Safety Recommendation
Wrong site surgery – wrong patient: invasive procedures in outpatient settings
It would be beneficial if trusts trained or employed suitably qualified and competent patient safety specialists to align with the national Patient Safety Syllabus currently under development
Safety Observation
12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs) in ambulance services: paramedic education, training and competence
Ambulance services and national organisations can improve patient safety by providing and supporting protected time and resources for paramedic training and continuous professional development, while understanding the potential impact on operational performance.
Safety Observation
Mental health inpatient settings
HSSIB recommends that The Shelford Group reviews and updates the Mental Health Optimal Staffing Tool on a regular basis following collection of recent data from mental health inpatient settings. This is to ensure the tool remains valid for potential changes …
Safety Recommendation
CQC inspection actions(22)
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
The services should continue to address the vacancy rates in the service.
Should Do
Leicester Royal Infirmary
The trust should continue to build on the work on staff recruitment and retention and look for support from other departments, such as rotational work with children’s nurses, as an option to build stronger and more flexible teams in the …
Should Do
Leicester General Hospital
The trust must ensure there are always enough suitably qualified and skilled staff on duty.
Must Do
King George Hospital
The service should continue to review and implement existing strategies to decrease the reliance on bank and agency staff.
Should Do
Kettering General Hospital
The service should continue its recruitment campaign to increase the number of registered children's nurses it employs.
Should Do
Birmingham Children's Hospital
The trust should ensure there are enough suitably qualified staff across all clinical areas, to make sure the service can meet people's care and treatment needs. This includes medical, registered nursing and non-registered nursing staff.
Should Do
Worthing Hospital
The trust must ensure there are enough nursing staff to keep patients safe.
Must Do
Worthing Hospital
The trust must ensure there are sufficient numbers of suitably qualified staff to keep patients safe.
Must Do
University Hospital Lewisham
The service should continue to address the vacancy rates in the service.
Should Do
Royal Shrewsbury Hospital
The trust should consider increasing the exposure of direct reports to trust board in order that succession planning and empowerment continues to develop within the senior team.
Should Do
The James Cook University Hospital
The service should continue to explore ways to improve the current staffing challenges.
Should Do
William Harvey Hospital
The trust should ensure medical staff appraisal rates are improved.
Should Do
William Harvey Hospital
The trust should ensure they have enough Allied Health Professionals available to provide care to patients on medical wards, including those in escalation areas where medically fit patients reside.
Should Do
William Harvey Hospital
The trust should ensure staff are given regular appraisals. 18(1)(2)(a): Staffing.
Should Do
William Harvey Hospital
The trust should ensure staff are given regular appraisals. 18(1)(2)(a): Staffing.
Should Do
William Harvey Hospital
The trust should ensure staff are given regular appraisals. 18(1)(2)(a): Staffing.
Should Do
William Harvey Hospital
The leadership team should consider how future leaders operationalise the vision and support continuation of work introduced by people in current interim roles.
Should Do
Montagu Hospital, Mexborough
Thetrustmustensurestaffreceiveappropriatesupport,training,andappraisalasisnecessarytoenablethemto carryouttheroletheyareemployedtoperform.Regulation18(2)(a)
Must Do
Doncaster Royal Infirmary
The trust must ensure the service’s medical and nursing staff match the planned numbers. They must also ensure the service has enough medical staff with appropriate skill mix on each shift.
Must Do
Crowborough Birthing Centre
The service should ensure they have enough maternity staff deployed to keep women and birthing people safe from harm.
Should Do
Luton and Dunstable Hospital
The trust must ensure that internationally recruited staff receive appropriate and ongoing support to enable them to carry out the duties they are employed to perform.
Must Do
Bedford Hospital
The trust must ensure that internationally recruited staff receive appropriate and ongoing support to enable them to carry out the duties they are employed to perform.
Must Do
HMICFRS recommendations(12)
FRS 2023-25 CoC Recommendations: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue …
Cause of concern: The service lacks adequate organisational level plans that set out and bring together current and future workforce and skills requirements. The service doesn’t have in place adequate service-level processes to direct its recruitment and succession planning work. …
Recommendation
FRS 2023-25 CoC Recommendations: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue …
Cause of concern: The service lacks adequate organisational level plans that set out and bring together current and future workforce and skills requirements. The service doesn’t have in place adequate service-level processes to direct its recruitment and succession planning work. …
Recommendation
FRS 2023-25 CoC Recommendations: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue …
Cause of concern: The service lacks adequate organisational level plans that set out and bring together current and future workforce and skills requirements. The service doesn’t have in place adequate service-level processes to direct its recruitment and succession planning work. …
Recommendation
FRS 2021-22 CoC Recommendations: North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
Cause of concern: The service doesn't have in place adequate workforce planning processes. This means that areas such as safety-critical training, succession planning, absence and work-time management don't support its current and future integrated risk management plan. Recommendation: By September …
Recommendation
FRS 2021-22 CoC Recommendations: North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
Cause of concern: The service doesn't have in place adequate workforce planning processes. This means that areas such as safety-critical training, succession planning, absence and work-time management don't support its current and future integrated risk management plan. Recommendation: By September …
Recommendation
FRS 2021-22 CoC Recommendations: North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
Cause of concern: The service doesn't have in place adequate workforce planning processes. This means that areas such as safety-critical training, succession planning, absence and work-time management don't support its current and future integrated risk management plan. Recommendation: By September …
Recommendation
FRS 2021-22 CoC Recommendations: North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
Cause of concern: The service doesn't have in place adequate workforce planning processes. This means that areas such as safety-critical training, succession planning, absence and work-time management don't support its current and future integrated risk management plan. Recommendation: By September …
Recommendation
FRS 2018-19 CoC Recommendations: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue …
Cause of concern: Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service doesn’t do enough to be an inclusive employer. We found signs of low morale in the workforce. People have little confidence that they will be treated fairly or that senior …
Recommendation
FRS 2021-22 CoC Recommendations: Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service
Cause of concern: The service hasn’t made enough progress since the last inspection to improve equality, diversity and inclusion. Recommendation: By 31 January 2022, the service should:- be more ambitious in its efforts to attract a more diverse workforce which …
Recommendation
FRS 2021-22 CoC Recommendations: North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
Cause of concern: The service doesn't have in place adequate workforce planning processes. This means that areas such as safety-critical training, succession planning, absence and work-time management don't support its current and future integrated risk management plan. Recommendation: By September …
Recommendation
Efficiency spotlight report: The impact of recruitment and retention on the criminal …
Invest more in understanding why staff left and use this information to inform future changes to improve recruitment and retention
Recommendation
The policing response to antisocial behaviour: PEEL spotlight report
ASB training and mandatory process for collecting, analysing and publishing data on antisocial behaviour
Recommendation
NAO audit recommendations(11)
Planting Trees in England
Defra and the Forestry Commission should: a) set clear milestones for nursery and forestry workforce capacity from 2025 onwards based on the long-term trajectory for tree-planting set by the net zero strategy, and use these milestones to provide a target …
Partially accepted
Employment support: The Kickstart Scheme
l) conducting proactive routine monitoring of what employment support organisations participating in Kickstart are providing; and
Accepted
Employment support: The Kickstart Scheme
To help ensure Kickstart participants receive high-quality support alongside their jobs, the Department should monitor the support provided, by: k) establishing standards to benchmark the quality and quantity of employability support it expects Kickstart participants to receive;
Accepted
Resilience to animal disease
e work with stakeholders in the veterinary sector to develop a workforce strategy that addresses the challenges currently facing the veterinary workforce, particularly in government but also considering the private sector;
Accepted
Progress in improving mental health services in England
b) Either separately or as a distinct part of the overall NHS workforce plan due in 2023, DHSC and NHSE should publish a longer-term mental health workforce recruitment and retention strategy and a costed plan, that reflects the volume and …
Accepted
Public Service Pensions
c) in conjunction with the Cabinet Office, work closely with employers to understand how public service pensions can best support their workforce planning, to ensure pensions are an effective tool in recruiting and retaining the staff they need;
Partially accepted
Investigation into the Bounce Back Loan Scheme
The Scheme achieved its initial objective of quickly supporting small businesses, but a lack of more detailed Scheme-specific objectives will make it difficult to measure its ultimate success. Systems and processes have evolved since the Scheme launch but much hard …
Accepted
Support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in England
The Department should set quantified goals, for 2020-21 onwards, including outcome measures such as metrics relating to preparing young people for adulthood, to make clear what level of performance would constitute success for the support provided for pupils with SEND. …
Partially accepted
NHS England’s modelling for the Long Term Workforce Plan
Recommendation 3: Given NHSE's commitment to update the LTWP at regular intervals, it should assign responsibility for understanding the entire modelling pipeline to a small team and ensure that there is sufficient knowledge of the Python and triangulation models available …
Accepted
Civil service leadership capability
b. The Cabinet Office should work with departments, professions and functions to set out more clearly the specific outcomes that it wants to achieve from leadership capability as a whole system, and criteria for judging success. The Cabinet Office should …
Accepted
Support for vulnerable adolescents
We recommend that those central government departments involved should, through formal governance, work together to: c) agree some cross-government objectives and outcome measures for supporting those vulnerable adolescents most in need of support, along with data sources and methods of …
Accepted
IMB individual recommendations(140)— showing 50 strongest matches
Brook House (2020)
Keep staff recruitment and retention as a priority.
NHS / Healthcare Provider
Onley (2021)
Ways should be explored as to how to retain good long-standing officers in HMPPS. We see all too often good officers leaving to pursue careers outside HMPPS due to better progression and increased salaries. These losses unfortunately lead to more new, inexperienced officers at HMP Onley. As mentioned in last year’s report, increasing the local pay allowance to that in …
HMPPS
Partially Accepted
Garth (2021)
Staff retention problems throughout HMPPS have increased throughout this period in large part because of the erosion of staff salaries and conditions of service. This matter needs to be urgently addressed and rectified.
HMPPS
In Progress
Eastwood Park (2021)
What action is being taken to improve officer recruitment and retention at Eastwood Park?
Governor / Director
In Progress
Yarl’s Wood (2022)
Keep staff recruitment and retention as a priority.
Governor / Director
Woodhill (2022)
To work with colleagues across government departments to develop a meaningful plan for the recruitment and retention of prison staff.
Ministry of Justice
In Progress
Winchester (2022)
What measures can the minister outline to improve staff recruitment, motivation and retention?
Other
In Progress
Whitemoor (2022)
Will HMPPS give priority to improving the training and support given to prison officers in their early years in post in order to halt the haemorrhaging of staff in the first five years after their appointment?
HMPPS
Wetherby (2022)
Recruitment and retention of officers is a serious problem. What are the short- and long-term plans to address this?
HMPPS
Wormwood Scrubs (2023)
HMPPS should outline actions to improve recruitment, turnover, and retention of staff.
HMPPS
Garth (2023)
Staffing shortages have meant that the key worker system cannot work effectively. The Board believes the key worker system is essential for the good management and support of prisoners. It is presently not working effectively because of staff shortages. When will the Minister increase staffing levels and funding to rectify this problem?
HMPPS
In Progress
Birmingham (2023)
Retaining staff is a concern particularly when experienced staff are leaving. How will HMPPS improve staff retention rates?
HMPPS
Implemented
Aylesbury (2023)
Deliver a robust, imaginative and flexible new recruitment strategy across the prison estate, backed by the resources needed to increase and sustain higher staffing levels.
HMPPS
Brinsford (2024)
Recruitment and retention of staff across the Prison Service.
HMPPS
In Progress
Feltham (2025)
Take proactive steps to reduce staff absence and provide support for those on sick leave.
Governor / Director
Feltham (2025)
Address staff absence and improve retention.
HMPPS
Feltham (2025)
What is being done to recruit staff to the Probation Service?
Ministry of Justice
Feltham (2025)
Implement dedicated national campaign to recruit youth justice workers.
HMPPS
Feltham (2025)
What steps will you take to improve staffing levels in the wellbeing team?
Governor / Director
Feltham (2025)
What steps will you take to improve staffing levels in the resettlement team?
Governor / Director
Feltham (2025)
What steps will you take to support the A side Governor in recruiting more staff for resettlement and well-being teams?
HMPPS
Onley (2020)
Given the competition for jobs in the local area (Warwickshire Police, HS2, etc.), it is felt that the local pay allowance at Onley should be increased to the London level to support recruitment and retention of staff needs to be urgently addressed, in order to help the governor with staff retention.
HMPPS
Partially Accepted
Guys Marsh (2020)
What steps will the minister take to ensure that properly supported recruitment, training and professional development of a sufficient number of competent prison officers will continue to be a priority?
Ministry of Justice
Downview (2020)
Despite being raised in three previous annual reports, the London weighting issue and its impact on recruitment and retention in the education department has still not been resolved and remains a real concern (see section 7.1). Given that this issue continues to have such a significant impact on the performance of the education department in the prison, is there any …
Ministry of Justice
Rejected
Bullingdon (2020)
What steps is the minister taking to ensure that probation services will have the number of staff that they need, both in prisons and in the community? How will he address the problems that have arisen because of the amount of experience and knowledge that has been lost as a result of past staff cuts and subsequent attrition?
Ministry of Justice
In Progress
Exeter (2021)
Exert influence to help the retention of prison officers by recognising the work they do and ensuring parity with other public servant roles (see 3.2.4).
Ministry of Justice
Woodhill (2022)
To increase the recruitment and retention of uniformed and non-uniformed staff.
HMPPS
In Progress
Whitemoor (2022)
Will the minister give a clear lead to addressing the staffing crisis in the prison service by undertaking a fundamental review of the career opportunities and pay offered to its staff?
Ministry of Justice
Portland (2022)
What steps will the minister take to ensure that the prison service is an attractive profession with competitive remuneration, training and professional development?
Ministry of Justice
Hollesley Bay (2022)
Supports the reunification of the Probation Service. Nevertheless, it is recognised that there is a need to recruit more trained staff and a national plan should be established for this purpose. This comment is equally applicable to prison officers.
Ministry of Justice
Hollesley Bay (2022)
Supports the reunification of the Probation Service. Nevertheless, it is recognised that there is a need to recruit more trained staff and a national plan should be established for this purpose. This comment is equally applicable to prison officers.
Ministry of Justice
Gartree (2022)
Can the Prison Service confirm what are the attraction, recruitment, and retention plan for prison officers to ensure that staffing levels at Gartree do not suffer because of the new private sector prisons due to open in close proximity to Gartree, which may appear to offer more attractive employment?
HMPPS
Altcourse (2022)
Timely recruitment of a complaints clerk and family unit social worker to ensure that the current level of service in those areas is maintained.
Governor / Director
Ranby (2023)
What steps can the Prison Service take to ensure that the numbers of experienced staff are maintained at adequate levels?
HMPPS
Lewes (2023)
Will the Minister improve the funding to enable the prison to recruit and retain an adequate number of staff?
Ministry of Justice
Garth (2023)
How and when does the Minister propose to tackle the urgent issue of uniformed staff recruitment and retention? Specifically, it is strongly recommended that applicants who are interested in joining the staff at Garth should visit the prison before interview and should be interviewed by a panel that includes senior staff at the prison. This should help ensure that new …
HMPPS
In Progress
Feltham (2023)
The lack of staff in the Probation Service negatively impacts sentence and resettlement planning. This results in more work for prison staff. What steps are being taken to affect recruitment to the Probation Service?
Other
Bullingdon (2023)
Continuing staff shortages and a continuing increase in the proportion of inexperienced staff remain concerns to the Board. While various initiatives have aimed to improve retention and training of staff with limited experience, are there any other measures which the Minister could take to alleviate the Board’s concerns?
Ministry of Justice
In Progress
Altcourse (2023)
Recruitment and retention of staff have been major concerns this year, particularly in the context of the transfer to Sodexo. These issues could undermine the stability and safety of the prison. Can the Board be reassured therefore that the recruitment and retention of staff remain the highest priority?
Governor / Director
Altcourse (2023)
Recruitment and retention of staff have been major concerns this year, particularly in the context of the transfer to Sodexo. These issues could undermine the stability and safety of the prison. Can the Board be reassured therefore that the recruitment and retention of staff remain the highest priority?
Governor / Director
In Progress
Wymott (2024)
Does HMPPS have any plans to address the issue of recruitment and retention of officers within the prison service? The Board is concerned about the current imbalance between experienced officers and new recruits.
HMPPS
In Progress
Garth (2024)
it is strongly recommended that applicants who are interest in joining the staff at Garth should visit the prison before interview and should be interviewed face-to-face by a panel that includes senior staff of the prison. It is essential that applicants fully understand what they are coming into and that management are as sure as possible that they have the …
Ministry of Justice
Partially Accepted
Garth (2024)
The whole process of recruitment and retention needs to be addressed with the Governor and senior management being included in the process and able to determine suitability of individual applicants for this prison.
HMPPS
In Progress
Garth (2024)
The whole policy and process of staff recruitment needs to be reviewed and revised as a matter of urgency, because many of the operational problems within the prison derive from the inadequacies of the current process.
Ministry of Justice
In Progress
Feltham (2025)
The IMB understands that recent changes to visas for overseas workers will prevent many foreign national people who have recently joined the Prison Service from continuing to work in the UK. These trained and operational working prison officers face deportation. The changes will also prevent current overseas applicants from being successfully recruited. In this situation, where else will the Government …
Other
Feltham (2025)
What is being done to recruit staff to the Probation Service? The shortage of probation staff hampers delivery of resettlement services in prisons and will be a serious impediment to the proposed community sentence proposals in the Government’s Sentencing Bill.
Other
Coldingley (2025)
The Prison Service should outline what is being done to improve and stabilise staff retention, as Coldingley has witnessed an extreme case of operational staff attrition.
HMPPS
In Progress
Berwyn (2022)
The Board is concerned at the lack of sufficient staff, which is the biggest destabilising factor in the prison. We hope to see increased funding to help recruit and retain frontline operational staff.
Other
Lancaster Farms (2022)
To conduct a wide-ranging review of prison staffing, to address the loss of experienced staff and of a large percentage of new staff that leave within 12 months of recruitment.
HMPPS
In Progress
Guys Marsh (2020)
Recruitment and retention of competent and experienced prison officers is a challenge. How are plans for mentoring and professional development schemes progressing?
Governor / Director
Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiries(1)
Detention investigations(2)
Independent Investigation into Concerns about Brook House Immigration Removal Centre — Rec R7
G4S managers should undertake a comprehensive review of matters affecting staff retention at Brook House including remuneration, shift patterns and working hours and G4S needs to develop plans to address the matters arising from such a review. (To be completed as a matter of urgency)
Immigration Detention
Independent Investigation into Concerns about Brook House Immigration Removal Centre — Rec R42
G4S Health Services should develop a career pathway for nurses working in Care and Justice. This should be accompanied by the development of customised training materials. (To be completed within 3 months)
Immigration Detention
LGO / SPSO decisions(3)
PSOW-202502399 — Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Mr C complained that Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board withdrew an offer of a place on a training programme because it could not fund the Sponsorship Certificate that Mr C required. The Ombudsman found that the advert and recruitment pack had not made it clear that sponsorship was not available …
PSOW (Public Services Om…
Health
Oct 2025
23-015-052 — East Sussex County Council
Summary: Mr and Mrs B complained about the Council’s handling of their application to become respite foster carers. They say the Council unreasonably refused their application despite the fact they have fully cooperated with the process and given as much as information as they can. We do not find fault …
LGO (Local Government & …
Children S Care Services
Not Upheld
Jun 2024
24-005-139 — Kent County Council
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about an unsuccessful appeal for a school place. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault for us to be able to question the panel’s decision.
LGO (Local Government & …
Education
Jul 2024