Getting It Right First Time for the child health workforce

The RCPCH is joining forces with Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT), to get a snapshot of the neonatal and general acute workforce on two given days in September.

Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) is an NHS Improvement initiative that aims to reduce unwarranted variation in care. GIRFT are currently conducting a deep-dive review of neonatology, which involves developing datapacks that benchmark clinical metrics taken from a variety of sources.

As part of this, GIRFT is conducting a medical workforce snapshot survey. This survey will capture workforce ‘on the ground’ on two days: Wednesday 18 and Saturday 21 September. We are helping to coordinate the questionnaire, expanding it to include the general acute paediatric workforce.

Furthermore, we have secured buy in from all the devolved nations so that the survey will be UK-wide. Although GIRFT is an England programme, the College felt it important to have devolved nation representation if we were to co-badge this work.

As a result of this partnership, we can offer Trust/Health Board-level data packs and national reports about the general acute workforce across the UK. These will be released in late 2019 and early 2020.

The aim is to empower members with their own data, allowing benchmarking and comparison

We will be asking clinical leads and directors to complete a questionnaire about the number of people rostered for the day, compared to the actual workforce on the ground. This will give us a sample of shortages that may not be captured by asking for the establishment alone. The aim of this is to empower members with their own data, allowing benchmarking and comparison across units.

People working in neonatal units will also be asked to give anonymous information about their wellbeing, quality of service and workload. If you are working in a general acute or neonatal unit on Wednesday 18 or Saturday 21 September, please look out for our questionnaires and ask your clinical lead to respond!

If you have any questions don't hesitate to get in touch at workforce@rcpch.ac.uk.