Northern Ireland launches refreshed nursing staffing framework addressing workforce planning pressures

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has launched a refreshed policy framework designed to strengthen patient safety and support Northern Ireland's nursing and midwifery workforce through improved staffing planning and accountability structures.

Love Ballymena reported that the updated Delivering Care Policy Framework sets out a regionally consistent approach to ensuring the right staff, with the right skills, are in the right place at the right time, described as a cornerstone of safe and effective care.

The framework's refresh comes more than a decade after its original publication in 2014, during which time Northern Ireland's health system has faced intensifying challenges including an ageing population, increasingly complex care needs, growing waiting lists, rising demand for mental health services and persistent health inequalities.

Mike Nesbitt said: "In the last 12 years since the Framework was first published our Health and Social Care system has faced a growing list of significant pressures."

He added that against that backdrop, a re-examination of the framework was necessary to ensure it remains fit for purpose, with robust, evidence-based workforce planning critical to maintaining both safety and quality.

A key focus of the refreshed framework is clearer accountability from frontline wards through to senior leadership. New measures aim to strengthen reporting mechanisms, promote shared accountability across the system and reinforce the use of evidence in decision-making.

Health and Social Care Trusts and independent employers will retain responsibility for operational workforce planning, with the framework supporting more responsive, locally informed staffing decisions designed to reflect real patient need.

Professor Maria McIlgorm, chief nursing officer who led the refresh through a dedicated task group established in autumn 2023, said: "Within the Health & Social Care system, Nursing and Midwifery represent the largest segment of the workforce."

Access the complete Delivering Care Policy Framework through the Department of Health Northern Ireland.