How can the NHS ensure a healthcare workforce fit for the future?

Delivering a sustainable NHS workforce fit for the future remains a key national priority, with recruitment and retention under the policy spotlight. This panel session builds off of recent research findings on healthcare staff retention and lived experience from the ongoing landmark I-CARE study, to explore the most effective interventions the new administration can take.

I-CARE

The I-CARE study (InCreAsing Retention of healthcare staff from Ethnic minority groups) runs from March 2024 to May [KW1] 2027. It aims to support the sustainability of our diverse NHS workforce, by providing evidence about how and why NHS staff from ethnic minority and migrant groups leave or stay in their jobs and working with stakeholders to support policy development. Initial findings were discussed at a Parliamentary roundtable event in December 2025 hosted by the NHS Race and Health Observatory and supported by the University of Leicester Institute for Policy and UCL respectively.

Link to I-CARE Research Project details: https://www.fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR157268

Session Overview

The Panel Session will consist of a Chair and four panel members, with each panel member having the opportunity to provide their perspective on the topic. The programme for the session is as follows:

• Welcome and Introduction from the Chair 4 mins
• Panellist Perspectives on the topic 16 mins (4 mins (each))
• Quickfire Question in follow-up (posed to all panellists) 4 mins (1 min (each))
• Q&A with the audience in attendance 25 mins

Panel Composition

Alice Semark, Chair (Senior Researcher, Re:State)

Alice joined the leading Re:State think tank in September 2024 and serves as the Senior Researcher in their ‘Re:Imagining Welfare’ workstream. Previously she led work across health and social care policy as part of their ‘Re:Imagining Health’ workstream. She has also spent time working in primary care as a medical receptionist and administrator and has experience in volunteering for a homeless charity, in conservation work and as an athletics coach.

Prof Manish Pareek (University of Leicester, Chief Investigator, I-CARE)

Prof Pareek serves as Chair and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases at the University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust where he is Head of the Division of Public Health and Epidemiology and Director of the Development Centre for Population Health. He has international expertise in studying health inequalities, developing and delivering public health research programmes in infectious diseases, healthcare workers, migrant health and ethnic minority health. His research group were at the forefront of investigating COVID-19 risk and outcomes in ethnic minority communities and he is the Chief Investigator of the UK-REACH programme of studies which examines a range of areas in healthcare workers including workforce health (UK-REACH), retention (I-CARE), long-COVID (REACH-OUT) and physical activity (THRIVE).

Prof Katherine Woolf (University College London (UCL), Joint Lead Applicant, I-CARE)

Prof Woolf is Professor of Medical Education Research at UCL Medical School, Honorary Research Fellow at UCL Psychology and Language Sciences and Visiting Professor at King’s College London. A strong belief in equality and fairness drives Kath’s research on inequalities in healthcare education, training and careers. The first non-clinician to be awarded an NIHR Career Development Fellowship in medical education, Kath is committed to ensuring research evidence informs policy and practice. She recently completed a two-year secondment to the UK Parliament House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee, and is co-leading the evaluation of recommendations for reforming UK medical education and training as part of Phase 2 of the Medical Education and Training Review.

Ben Morrin (Chief Executive, NHS Employers)

Ben has served as NHS Employers’ Chief Executive since July 2026, joining from NHS England where he was the integration director who oversaw the bringing together of NHS England, NHS Digital and Health Education England. He also served as a senior responsible officer for the NHS’s strategic response to COVID-19 across London during the first pandemic wave and served as deputy CEO for Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust during the second wave. While workforce director at University College London NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust (UCLH) - from 2014 - he gained the CIPD’s national recruiter of the year award for industry-leading practice in talent and succession management. Prior to joining UCLH, Ben was a senior civil servant in the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit and the Department of Health.

Prof Thomas Solomon CBE (Academic Vice-President, Royal College of Physicians (RCP))

Prof Solomon commenced his three year post as Academic Vice-President of the Royal College of Physicians in August 2024, having served on the RCP Council since 2019. A clinical academic for 25 years, Professor Solomon is a professor of neurology at the University of Liverpool and has worked as a consultant neurologist at the Walton Centre and Liverpool University Hospitals. He is also a director of the Pandemic Institute and the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at the University of Liverpool. Prof Solomon also works to engage wider audiences in science, including two family science shows at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He received a CBE in 2022 for his services to neurological and emerging infections research (as well as the COVID-19 response).

Organising Organisations: University of Leicester Institute for Policy, University College London (UCL)

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