Case Study: City Hospitals Sunderland achieves better workforce planning with flexible retirement support from NHS Employers

City Hospitals Sunderland - Customer Case Study

City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, an acute care provider, faced workforce planning challenges due to an aging staff profile and the risk of losing key skills and experience through retirement. To address this, the trust partnered with NHS Employers to utilize flexible retirement options available through the NHS Pension Scheme, aiming to retain valuable staff and support succession planning.

The solution implemented by NHS Employers involved using age profiling data to identify at-risk departments, reviewing flexible retirement requests against service needs, and raising staff awareness through pre-retirement workshops and total reward statements. This approach allowed the trust to retain crucial skills in hard-to-recruit areas, reduce recruitment costs, and support staff wellbeing. For NHS Employers, the program was a success, with the trust retaining experienced personnel and receiving approximately five flexible retirement requests per month, facilitating a natural reduction in headcount and a more positive work/life balance for its aging workforce.

City Hospitals Sunderland