2025 – 2030
People Strategy
Contents
Introduction and context
Welcome from Mel Pickup
National context
Our strategy is underpinned by the aims of the NHS People Plan and NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
In addition, all seven elements of the NHS People Promise are incorporated into our strategy, which are a core element of the national NHS Plan.
In addition, the strategy incorporates the People Pillars from the 2030 Vision from The Future of NHS HR and OD.
These are mapped below.
| Our ambitions | NHS People Promise | 2030 Vision for HR and OD |
|---|---|---|
| Health, wellbeing and belonging for all our people | We are compassionate and inclusive We are safe and healthy We are a team We each have a voice that counts |
Prioritising the health and wellbeing of all our people Ensuring inclusion and belonging for all |
| Making BTHFT a great place to work | We are always learning We are recognised and rewarded |
Creating a great employee experience Supporting and developing the people profession |
| More people working differently | New ways of working and delivering care | Harnessing the talents of all our people Leading improvement, change and innovation Embedding digitally enabled solutions Enabling new ways of working and planning for the future |
Regional and local context
We’ve also taken a look at what our local partners are aiming for and where we can support them to avoid duplication of resource and add value on to the things that matter, as well as our more local Trust specific plans like the Corporate Strategy, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Education Strategy.
Add all this up and we have our very own BTHFT People Strategy, focused on making BTHFT the best place to work and receive care.
Patient
Our vision
To be an outstanding provider of healthcare, research and education and a great place to work
Our objectives
Quality | Improvement | People | Partnership | Sustainability
Our values
We care 
We value people 
We are one team
Thrive
Where we are now
Our data
The People Picture at BTHFT in 2025 (as of March 2025)
We use a number of measures to track and monitor our success. See our targets at the end of the page.
7352 people
498 bank
76.3% female
23.7% male
Average age
26–40
Disability declaration
5%
BME workforce
43%
WTE employed
6669.56
Temp WTE
880.63
2024 NHS staff survey – exceeding national average
in 8 out of 9 areas
Sickness rate
5.86%
Medical appraisal rate
97%
Core mandatory training
94%
What about our place?
Bradford District has a population of 648,030.
Our population is young – we have the 4th highest proportion of residents under 16 in the country and 12.7% of our population is under 10 years old.
Bradford is ethnically diverse – 32.6% of our population describe themselves as being of BAME origin.
Staff turnover
Staff sickness
Appraisal rate (non-medical)
Core mandatory training
What are our challenges?
To understand what are the key priorities we need to address over the next 5 years, we’ve listened to our people and looked outwards to understand the regional and national picture and what the future looks like. This has helped us understand the key challenges we face.
Using our workforce effectively through the use of digital solutions
A key challenge is using our entire workforce in the most effective way. One of the ways we can be more efficient in our delivery is to invest in digital workforce systems to aid decision making and resource management.
Maximising the availability and flexibility of our workforce
Managing attendance and supporting wellbeing to help people feel well at work is a key element of our strategy to maximise the availability of our workforce. We also need to be better at having a workforce that is flexible enough to work across our system and partner organisations.
How we build an exemplary and consistent standard of leadership and management
We need to ensure our managers and leaders are confident and capable in their people management skills, empowered and enabled to make good decisions and supported when they need it.
Advancing equality, diversity and inclusion
By addressing inequalities for our people, patients and our wider communities with real purpose and action ensuring that our patients and people achieve a real sense of inclusion and belonging and where we create a culture that is positive, compassionate, and inclusive.
Effective workforce planning to future proof our organisation and the services we will offer
Understanding what our future needs to look like, ensuring the services we need to offer are set up and working effectively, and attracting and recruiting the right people, with the right skills, knowledge, behaviours and values as well as growing our own talent.
Our vision and ambitions
How we created our strategy
People Surveys completed by over 4000 colleagues
Holding over 20 Trust-wide listening events, including services, international colleagues and Thrive Live events
Discussions with our managers and leaders
Local discussions across all our areas and sites
Collaboration with our Colleague Networks and Staff Side
Discussions at our People Academy and Equality Diversity Council
Our three key ambitions
Understanding where we are now, our challenges, and what we need to do to be prepared for the future has helped us develop our three people ambitions.
Our ‘People’ objective is ‘to be one of the best NHS employers, prioritising the health and wellbeing of our people and embracing equality, diversity and inclusion’ and here is how we will achieve it.
Health, wellbeing and belonging for all our people
- A physical and psychological environment that is safe and enhances wellbeing
- Happier working lives – autonomy, flexibility and great relationships
- A culture where everyone feels they belong, can Thrive and are part of the BTHFT family
Making BTHFT a great place to work
- Living our values and Our People Charter
- Reward and recognition
- Supporting our leaders, teams and managers to shine
- Careers our people feel excited by
- Making continuous improvement a priority
Our people working differently
- Plan how best to use our workforce at BTHFT and beyond
- Right skills in the right places to deliver our services, now and in the future
- Improved attraction, recruitment and onboarding processes
How we’ll do it
Delivery of our strategy
Hear from Mark Hindmarsh, Director of Strategy and Transformation
Delivery of our strategy requires actions at multiple levels
Individual
Realise their potential and Thrive through:
- proactively accessing learning
- taking responsibility for own health and wellbeing
- living our values
- using their voice to share their thoughts, ideas and feedback
Team
Services to be delivered with pride, providing excellent care:
- leadership and management development
- team development
- toolkits and resources
- recognition of the importance of the role our managers have
Trust
BTHFT as a great place to work through access to:
- effective people systems and policies
- talent and succession planning
- equitable access to learning and development
System
Provide opportunity to collaborate, innovate and create consistency through access to:
- system workforce planning
- education
- inclusion
- HWB offers
National
Provide support and deliver the actions of the:
- NHS People Plan
- NHS Long term plan
- Future HR and OD report
Evaluating how we make a difference
We’ve had feedback that we need to make sure our measures stretch us – and we want to continue to challenge ourselves to be the best we can be.
We’ve set some overall targets and interim milestones against some specific measures.
| Measure | Current | Year 2 target | Year 5 target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turnover | 9.81% | 9.8% | 9.8% |
| Staff Survey response rate | 50% | 92% | 95% |
| WRES – Ethnically diverse representation at senior leadership levels (Band 8a+ incl. VSM) | 20% | 28% | 40% |
| WDES – Disability Declaration rate on ESR | 5% | 10% | 15% |
| Recruitment time to hire | 90.1** days (reported to Model Hospital) | 70 | 60 |
| Absence rate | YTD sickness (rolling 12 months to 30th November) 5.76% | Rolling 12 months <5% |
Rolling 12 months <4.5% |
| Appraisal completion rate (non-clinical) | 75.79% | 85% | 95% |
| Visits to Thrive (annual) | 63,279 | 100,000 | 150,000 |
| ‘I look forward to going to work’ (often/always) | 55.8% | 75% | 90% |
| ‘I feel safe to speak up about anything that concerns me in this organisation’ (agree/strongly agree) | 61.7% | 75% | 90% |
Governance and next steps
An implementation plan that sets out the detail underpinning our three ambitions and what we will deliver by when has been created and delivery of this, and the overall People Strategy will be overseen by the People Academy, which reports to the Trust Board.
Each year, we will conduct an annual review to ensure we remain accountable for the delivery of this strategy, incorporating learning and flexing when new priorities emerge.
We’d love you to get involved!
If you would like to know more about our People Strategy or be part of bringing our ambitions to life, please get in touch:
Help us make BTHFT a place where you are excited and proud to work in, every day!
©
2025 Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust