Next year, Wales will go to the polls to vote in the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) election. We’ll be able to decide what party we want to deliver policies for our NHS, education, social care and many other important issues.
At RCPCH Wales, we want to make sure all political parties are aware of the needs of children, young people and families but also what we as the child health workforce need to deliver high quality personalised care. To do this, we’ve set out our calls in Putting Children First - our manifesto for the 2026 Senedd election.
The first of these calls is to empower the child health workforce and that’s what I discuss in this blog.
A workforce under strain
Every profession within child health has a role, whether it’s delivering time critical care, supporting children to thrive in the community or championing the rights of children and young people. We all want to see children reach their full potential and ensure they receive the best possible care. In my time as a PICU consultant for over 20 years, I have seen how everyone worked hard to ensure children received the best care possible, with numerous examples of advocacy and huge efforts made to place the needs of children at the centre of the debate for resources.
However, I also know this is difficult with current numbers and pressures. Think about paediatrician services for a while: paediatric patient pathways increased by 33% between May 2021 and November 2024, rising from 8,393 to 11,129, but the number of consultant paediatricians only increased by 11 Full Time Equivalent (FTE). This translates to a 33% increase in pathways versus a 5.2% increase in consultants. This simple set of statistics helps to demonstrate the gap between service delivery and staffing.
Added to this, investment in other child health professions has not kept up with demand. Our health visiting numbers are dwindling and despite seeing more patients, GPs are struggling to meet demand, with access to them reducing through practice closures. Other services, such as speech and language therapy are also suffering and these resource limitations are all resulting in children waiting longer for care, missing vital intervention, and potentially impacting their future.
You may recognise the feeling that the workload is becoming overwhelming. This wouldn’t be surprising with 64.6% of paediatric trainees and 50.4% of trainers reporting to be at high to moderate risk of burnout in the latest GMC survey. It is perhaps no surprise then that so many (58.5% of residents in Wales) are working less than full time, which while essential for the wellbeing and work/life balance of individuals, exacerbates the impact of increased workload.
How do we fix this?
Our call on the next Welsh government is to empower the workforce. We know what works best is an interlinked harmonised approach to deliver personalised care. To do this means investment in all professions and at every stage of people’s careers. Paediatrics is a rewarding career, I would know, but to make sure this continues to be the case the next Welsh government in partnership with Health Boards needs to ensure everyone can thrive in the conditions that work best for patients and staff.
We’ve set out a few suggestions for the next Welsh Government in how to achieve this, including a gap analysis of all professions working in child health, a long-term workforce plan specific to child health and developing clinician-informed retention incentives. The NHS is only as strong as its workforce. To continue delivering high quality care for current and future generations, we need investment and with this we need to be empowered to show leadership and take action to improve child health.
If you want to read more about our calls on the next Welsh government you can do so by opening the documents below. And please do keep an eye out for upcoming activity.