Better skills, better jobs and better health - Skills for Health Sector Council (2024)

Skills for Health is a not-for-profit organisation committed to the development of an improved and sustainable healthcare workforce across the UK.

Discover our eLearning solutions
Discover our consultancy and research services
Browse a wide range of resources

Who we are

Overcoming the barriers to better healthcare provision

For over 20 years we’ve helped hundreds of NHS Trusts, independent and private healthcare providers, community and voluntary healthcare organisations, and so many more to solve local and national workforce challenges.

Significantly improve investment in healthcare education and training

Improve the utilisation and effectiveness of the support workforce

Cut patient waiting times (for example from 2 years to just 4 weeks)

Help to realise organisational change improvements to enhance care quality

Improve staff retention and reduce staff turnover by 50% in some cases

Release workforce savings from £50k to £10m+

Create new roles aligned to national standards in as little as 8 weeks

What we can help you with

National Healthcare Awards
The Care Certificate
Framework development
Workforce development
Apprenticeship support
Accredited healthcare eLearning
Nationally recognised, free online resources
Integrated Care Workforce Solutions
Primary Care workforce planning
Compliance tools for Junior Doctors’ Rostering
Organisational diagnostic tool – Ambit
Relevant healthcare news and insights
The Skills Platform

Latest from the frontline

Bringing you the latest insights, news and resources from the health sector’s leading experts, commissioners, researchers, and workforce specialists.

Dedicated to supporting the development of a skilled and sustainable healthcare workforce in the UK.

Article

An interview with Dame Elizabeth Anionwu

Helping to plan and deliver high quality, cost effective and efficient services

Here at Skills for Health, our expert services, solutions, frameworks, and tools have been developed by sector-leading specialists.

Workforce planning and development

We work with national NHS bodies, NHS Trusts and healthcare organisations who turn to us as a trusted partner for specific workforce planning solutions. Our health-tailored workforce development experts and researchers will help you identify, understand, and achieve the change you need.

Our integrated workforce solutions

eLearning and learning management

As one of the UK’s leading authorities on training compliance and developers of the Core Skills Training Framework, our elearning courses are perfectly aligned to support you in effectively training and maintaining learning at pace. LearnSpace, our unique learning management solution based on Totara Learn, has been tailored to support you in managing staff training compliance and seamlessly integrates with recognised HR systems used by the NHS.

eLearning for health and social care

LearnSpace: learning management system

eLearning brochure

Trusted to deliver

As the Sector Skills Council for Health and a leading not-for-profit, our customers trust us to invest their money wisely. By working with us, our customers are making their own commitment to the development of a sustainable and improved healthcare workforce for the future. Discover our recent work below.

Other ways we help…

Working at a national level with the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England & Improvement and Health Education England, means we’ve collaborated and developed a range of tailored solutions that support both local and regional healthcare organisations to improve their workforce, for good.

National workforce research

Through our research division, we work directly with employers and national bodies to understand and evaluate healthcare workforce trends, aligned to public health issues. We also conduct our own research projects, aligned to national healthcare challenges (including Covid-19 research).

Healthcare Trailblazers

We work with Health Education England to develop nationally recognised Healthcare Apprenticeships, as part of the ‘Get in, Get on, Go Further’ strategic aims. Healthcare Apprenticeship Standards Online showcases our work in collaboration with trailblazer groups and national bodies.

Apprenticeship support

With 20 years’ experience in healthcare workforce development, research, funding, and role design, we help employers navigate through complex changes to apprenticeships to help grow their own workforce and meet government apprenticeship targets.

Leadership, management & OD

Our expert leadership and OD team support NHS and healthcare organisations to develop robust leadership programmes, working either with individuals, teams, or entire organisations to combat change management issues. We align our methodologies and practice to real healthcare issues and guidance such as the NHS People Plan 2020.

The Care Certificate

TheCare Certificate is an identified set of standards that health and social care workers adhere to in their daily working life. Designed with the non-regulated workforce in mind, the Care Certificate gives everyone the confidence that workers have the same introductory skills, knowledge and behaviours to provide compassionate, safe and high quality care and support.

Organisational Diagnostic Tool – Ambit

Ambit is our organisational diagnostic tool for OD and HR professionals that helps you assess, measure, benchmark and improve how your workplace is performing against essential aspects of organisational life. With three levels of analysis, you can choose the level of reporting that suits your organisational strategy and needs.

Keep in the loop

You’ll find a wealth of information right here on our website, but why not sign up to receive real-time updates? We’ll keep you up to speed with national healthcare frameworks, new product launches, upcoming events, and much more – straight to your inbox.