The Government's new Centre for Workforce Intelligence aims to help those in nurse manager jobs and other senior health and social care roles plan their workforce.

Ann Keen, the Minister for Health says that the Centre will focus resources on the frontline and help remove bureaucracy in the health and social care sectors. The new body was proposed after the release of the review 'A High Quality Workforce,' which looked at the future of NHS staffing. The review argued that there was a need for a central organisation to lead the sector in workforce planning across the system.

The Centre aims to provide research and expert advice to the NHS and employers of social care jobs, as well as clinicians and commissioners. It hopes that it will be able to promote best practice in workforce planning across health and care services, making recruitment, planning and allocation of workers more efficient and more focused upon individuals.

As part of its research, the Centre will encourage everyone who is involved in workforce planning to collect and contribute high quality data for analysis and modelling. It will also look at wider labour market issues that could have an impact on frontline services and care pathways.

"Planning and developing the numbers of doctors, nurses and social care workers means that they can respond to the needs of their community and ensure that patients get high-quality and people-centred care," said Ms Keen.