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»Ê¼Ò»ªÈË the workforce snapshot survey, in partnership with GIRFT

This study provided an 'on the ground' picture of shortages and day-to-day realities of people working in child health. This was done by conducting a snapshot of the general paediatric and neonatal workforce on two days in September 2019. The aim was to empower members with their own data, allowing benchmarking and comparison. To do this, the RCPCH partnered with the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme, an NHSE/NHSI initiative.

What is Getting it Right First Time?

Getting It Right First Time () is an initiative aimed at improving quality of care by reducing unwarranted variations in England.

We partnered with the GIRFT , which conducted a neonatal workforce snapshot in England. The progamme invited the RCPCH to collaborate on this work as a joint-badged project. The RCPCH expanded the survey to include general paediatric questions and to include the devolved nations.

We published the reports in September 2020:

What was the scope of this work?

Questionnaires covering the neonatal and general paediatric staffing in every unit in the UK were sent out to clinical leads and directors ahead of the snapshot dates, Wednesday 18 and Saturday 21 September 2019.

We asked clinical leads to complete a questionnaire giving a departmental overview of the planned and actual workforce for the day in neonatal and general paediatric services. For neonatal services, there were also individual questionnaires for every member of staff on the rota.

How did we collect the data?

The RCPCH and GIRFT sent out the same questionnaire materials in September 2019 to our own contacts separately, ensuring wide distribution. 

You can download the privacy notice below.

What was the aim of this work?

The neonatal workforce data in England will form part of GIRFT’s network and unit-level datapacks. Data from across the UK for both general paediatrics and neonatology were used by RCPCH to create national reports.

We looked at:

  • rota gaps and reasons for gaps
  • activity and workload
  • differences in daytime, weekend and night cover
  • comparison to the British Medical Association (BMA) and other doctors’ contract standards (eg break times).

In addition, the neonatology questionnaire looked at:

  • comparison to British Association for Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) standards
  • safety, governance, and staff wellbeing.
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