We’ve now had over a year of strikes by doctors, nurses and other staff campaigning for improved pay and working conditions. Over the past year in our schools, striking teachers have highlighted supply and retention challenges, with pay and workload cited as barriers to joining and staying within the profession.
Meanwhile, a number of councils across England are facing effective bankruptcy and having to implement cuts to front-line services, with huge pressure being put on support for vulnerable adults and children, and on housing services in particular.
Our public services are in turmoil and we now face a disheartening vicious circle of continued under-funding, high workload, low public confidence and trust, and inevitable ongoing supply and retention challenges. Nowhere are the challenges more stark than within healthcare and education.
Universities are critical to training our nation’s public service professionals, and yet it is now a struggle to attract applications to study across these essential areas.
Nursing and education are particular areas of concern where a healthy pipeline of qualified, motivated and committed people into these professions is worryingly elusive. Prospective students are just not considering entering these professions because they see low status, poor pay and difficult working environments. Those who do complete extensive training and gain qualification are more than likely to exit their profession early.
