Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has completed a trust-wide medical workforce planning programme delivered with SARD, introducing new digital job planning processes and workforce data systems intended to improve oversight of clinical capacity, support service redesign, and inform long-term workforce planning across its hospital services.

Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has completed a trust-wide medical workforce planning programme delivered in partnership with SARD, aimed at improving visibility over clinical capacity and demand.

The eight-month programme involved the completion of 285 consultant job plans across the Trust, and covered 18 core clinical services. According to the Trust, the work has provided a clearer picture of workforce capacity and supported planning for services covering a population of more than 420,000 people across Chester and West Cheshire.

The programme was introduced in response to rising demand for services and changing population health needs, including increasing levels of complex care, and the need for greater agility within workforce deployment.

As part of the work, the Trust carried out a review of existing job planning processes, policies and data systems. The programme also included the introduction of SARD’s electronic job planning platform, the development of standardised job planning terminology across the Trust, and the establishment of a multi-stakeholder consistency panel.

More than 120 one-to-one sessions and specialty workshops were also held during the programme to support clinician engagement and implementation.

The Trust said insights generated through the process had informed service redesign discussions and workforce allocation decisions, including identifying areas where additional clinical capacity may be required.

According to the Trust, completion of the programme means it could potentially reach level 3 attainment standards for medical job planning set out by NHS England. The programme is also aligned with NHS England’s 10-step approach to job planning.

Data from the 2025 Workforce Deployment System Survey cited by the Trust found that only 32 per cent of trusts were operating at level 1 attainment or above.

Dr Nigel Scawn, Medical Director at Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “By piecing job planning information together to create a full picture of capacity and demand, we can ensure resources are sufficiently balanced and distributed across clinical areas to support safer and more effective care. The strong collaborative working with the medical workforce has enabled us to establish a robust, consistent and transparent process which has repositioned job planning from a compliance task to a powerful strategic asset to drive informed decisions.”

Sunil Nair, Clinical Director for Diabetes at Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “In my 14-years’ experience as a Consultant Physician, this has been the most positive job planning exercise. SARD was able to explain the software clearly and define medical consultant activities accurately. Overall, it has been received very well by my consultant colleagues in the department.”

Countess of Chester said it will continue to build on the planning framework independently, using the new workforce insights to support long-term service development, resource planning and the delivery of high-quality, sustainable patient care.

Phil Bottle, Managing Director at SARD, said: “Countess of Chester set out to fundamentally reshape its approach to planning, deploying and understanding its medical workforce capacity. They have set a new standard for workforce transformation by embedding job planning as a lasting optimisation solution that supports real workforce and service decisions. Longer term, the trusts that adopt workforce optimisation as core infrastructure and not a siloed exercise will thrive as the NHS responds to increasing demand and complex needs.”

The workforce strategy at the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is part of an overall improvement programme across the trust, focusing on improved care for patients and families and a greater emphasis on staff wellbeing. The trust has three hospitals – The Countess of Chester Hospital, Ellesmere Port Hospital and Tarporley War Memorial Hospital.