5 Ways We Can Help Learning and Development Departments Respond to the 2024 Darzi Review.

Lord Darzi’s 2024 review of the NHS has significant implications for learning and development (L&D) departments in the healthcare sector. Of course, this presages the upcoming 10 year plan for NHS, but the initial diagnosis gives a direction of travel.

Our reading of the report suggests five macro-level challenges that impact the delivery of staff training and development in the future NHS:

1. Community and Preventative Care: As the review pushes for a shift from hospital-based to community-centred care, there will be an increased need for training in community health, mental health services, and preventative care approaches. L&D departments will be encouraged to work even more closely with colleagues across organisational boundaries, blurring the divide between primary and secondary care. This should lead to inter-organisation shared training plans, interventions and content. Our learning content management tools can help you streamline the distribution of training materials across organisations.
2. Long-term Workforce Planning: The report’s recommendation for a sustainable, 10-year plan for the NHS means that L&D departments need to work on developing long-term, strategic talent management initiatives. This includes providing and monitoring continuous professional development (CPD) to keep pace with evolving healthcare needs and technologies​. L&D departments also have a role to play in shaping the succession and career plans which directly drive retention and to sustainable service delivery. We’re currently working at regional and local level to create practical online succession planning tools, and are seeing in real time the linking up of these initiatives at system-wide level.
3. Workforce Engagement and Wellbeing: Darzi re-emphasizes the importance of re-engaging and empowering NHS staff, particularly given the high levels of sickness absence and reported workforce disengagement. L&D departments will need to focus on creating programs that address staff wellbeing and improve job satisfaction​. We see, and celebrate, a recent uptick in focus on equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging.
4. Digital Skills Development: One of the core themes in the review is the transition from outdated systems to digital and AI-driven healthcare. This means L&D departments will need to upskill staff in new technologies, ensuring they are equipped to handle advanced digital tools, AI applications, and modern diagnostic equipment​. A practical starting point here can be a digital skills audit, something we can help with immediately using our ThinkInsight survey technology for Totara LMS.
5. Investment in Digital Technology: Darzi explicitly calls out how the NHS has been deprived of essential technology investment. No exact figure has been given, but we’d be unsurprised if it the gap was at least £1bn over the past 10 years. This is at odds with at least a decade of government strategy to reduce, or even eliminate, paper in the public sector. There’s a huge challenge to achieve this across the patient flow, but Learning and Development can take a lead here; our sector has excellent experience of digital learning (e-learning, VR, immersive learning, online assessments to name just a few). This can’t be tech for tech’s sake, of course – we’d expect implementation of learning technology to directly increase return on investment in learning, and even to directly reduce costs. Talk to us about how we can help you to create a business case for increased investment in learning technology, for rapid returns.

Do these challenges align with your organisation’s experience? Whether you agree or not, we invite you to share your thoughts. Contact us at hello@think-learning.com to start a conversation and explore how we can support your L&D initiatives.