PeopleFirst 2026: The NHS Workforce Strategy & Culture Conference
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PeopleFirst 2026: The NHS Workforce Strategy & Culture Conference
A Skills-Focused Summit on NHS Workforce Strategy, Culture and Care Integration - All Convenzis Events Provide 8 CPD Points Per Delegate
Take part in our conference prize draw by visiting all stands and scanning your lanyard at each for a chance to win £100 voucher.
Sponsors & Partners
Context and Policy Landscape:
The NHS enters the next phase of its long-term transformation with a clear directive: build a sustainable, skilled, and adaptable workforce capable of meeting rising demand and evolving models of care. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan and the wider 10-Year Health Plan set ambitious expectations for productivity, capacity, and new operating models, all of which depend on a confident, well-supported workforce.
Against this backdrop, the NHS face persistent pressures around recruitment, retention, skills development, and cultural wellbeing. The challenge is not simply defining the workforce of the future, but equipping teams with practical methods, governance, and behaviours that convert strategy into measurable improvement. PeopleFirst 2026 provides a collaborative space for senior leaders to strengthen capability, share applied learning, and explore solutions that underpin a resilient and future-ready NHS workforce.
Summit Focus:
The PeopleFirst 2026 Summit brings together senior NHS leaders to examine applied workforce transformation, moving from strategic ambition to operational delivery. Delegates will gain access to practical frameworks, tested models, and peer-led insights that support safe, equitable, and sustainable workforce development.
Dedicated Skill Clinics will provide focused, hands-on sessions offering tools, checklists, and implementation templates to support local adoption.
Lessons Learned Sessions will deliver candid reflections from NHS leaders on real-world challenges, decision points, and lessons that shaped their approach.
This is not a showcase of what to achieve, but a skills exchange on how to achieve it, translating national ambition into measurable improvement.
This year’s event is structured around clear outcomes. Delegates will leave understanding:
- How to align local workforce strategies with national direction and long-term planning.
- Ways to strengthen operational resilience and improve workforce productivity.
- Approaches to developing a confident, agile, and skills-ready workforce.
- Methods for embedding governance, safety, and consistent workforce standards.
- Techniques to deliver measurable service improvement through effective workforce models.
- How to drive equity, staff wellbeing, and improved patient experience through culture and capability.
What’s New for 2026:
- Morning & Afternoon Skill Clinics: immersive sessions focused on actionable tools, checklists, and templates delegates can implement immediately.
- Lessons Learned Sessions: real-world reflections from NHS leaders detailing what went wrong, what changed, and what succeeded.
- Peer Learning Circles: small-group exchanges to explore common challenges and co-design solutions across ICBs and provider collaboratives.
- Action-Driven Case Studies: showcasing not only outcomes achieved, but how results were delivered through process and workforce innovation.
Why Attend:
- Build professional confidence through applied, hands-on learning.
- Access ready-to-use frameworks for governance, interoperability, and workforce transformation.
- Hear real experiences from peers and leaders driving NHS improvement.
- Leave with practical artefacts, toolkits, and action plans for local rollout.
- Join a community of NHS professionals committed to capability-building and sustainable delivery.
Who Would Benefit:
This summit is ideal for clinical, operational, and digital leaders driving NHS transformation, including ICB and ICS teams, Chief Nurses, AHP leads, CCIOs, CIOs, service managers, and transformation directors. It will also benefit community providers, GP leaders, workforce planners, and patient experience teams seeking practical guidance on scalable, interoperable models of care.
Suppliers, digital partners, and academic collaborators will gain insight into implementation priorities, workforce skill gaps, and the real-world enablers shaping the next decade of NHS transformation.
Your Pass Includes....
- This conference is CPD accredited. Attendees will be eligible to gain 8 CPD points upon completion of the event.
- Access to a leading conference speaker programme
- Interactive Q&A sessions
- Leadership Lessons from the Front Line
- Cross-sector best practice
- Meet the supplier opportunities
- Hot breakfast & Lunch included
- Access to post event drinks reception and Street food
Tickets For NHS Senior Managers
We have an invite only option for NHS Senior Managers for our conference, to see if you qualify for a complimentary place please click the button below.
Conference Speakers
Dave
Algeo
Resilience/ Wellbeing Speaker
Read biography
Mr Chris Sleight MSc BSc
FIBMS
Chief Executive Officer of Sleight Insights
Formerly Chief Officer of the Greater Manchester Diagnostic Networks
Read biography
The programme
Registration & Networking
Registration - Open from 8:20 am - Closes at 11:00 am
All delegates must complete their registration process before the 11:00 AM cut-off time. Please arrive in a timely manner to allow for registration and to avoid any inconvenience. Delegates who arrive after the registration deadline will be refused entry to the event.
We appreciate your cooperation in helping us maintain the event's schedule and ensuring that everyone can fully participate in the conference. If you have any questions or require assistance, our event staff will be available to assist you with the registration process.
Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to an insightful and productive event together!
Keynote Presentation - Generational Divide in the NHS
Session Overview:
This session explores the growing generational divide within the NHS workforce, examining differences in expectations, well-being and career progression across age groups. Delegates will gain practical insight into the challenges driving retention and morale, and leave with a clearer understanding of how to engage, support and retain staff from every generation to build a more resilient NHS workforce.
Morning Skill Clinic - Aligning Local Workforce Strategies with National Ambition (TBC)
Session Overview:
A session exploring how ICBs, providers, and collaboratives can translate national workforce strategy into coherent, locally owned plans.
The session will cover:
- Strategic workforce planning across integrated care systems.
- The role of data and modelling in future capacity forecasting.
- Strengthening retention, wellbeing, and organisational culture.
- Reducing variation through shared governance and workforce standards.
Main Sponsor - Workforce Strategy & Planning: Using data analytics and commercial intelligence to drive improved outcomes
Main Sponsor - NHS Workforce Alliance
We are a value-adding NHS resource that supports NHS leaders and operational teams in all aspects of workforce planning and management at no direct cost to the NHS.
Unrivalled workforce support
The Alliance is a partnership between Crown Commercial Service and the four NHS-owned and operated collaborative procurement hubs. We have been working together since 2019 to combine our experience and expertise for the benefit of the NHS.
Case Study - Rambutan
Case Study - Rambutan
Hello! Here at Rambutan, we’re behavioural experts in understanding ‘Why people do what they do’. This knowledge informs our work – from coaching, leadership development and behavioural change, to culture, employee engagement and our own unique 360° leadership tool Rambutan Evolve; all delivered face-to-face or online.
We’re a refreshing bunch who love to create engaging work experiences where people, teams and whole organisations can fulfil their potential and achieve tangible results.
Case Study
Case Study
Leadership Lessons from the Front Line - Productivity, Innovation, and the Future Clinical Workforce (TBC)
Session Overview:
A candid conversation with senior leaders on the opportunities and tensions surrounding productivity expectations, digital augmentation, and workforce redesign. This discussion will consider how technology, clinical skill mix, and new operating models can support safe and sustainable workforce growth, alongside reflections on the leadership behaviours that enable effective adoption.
Case Study
Case Study
Case Study
Case Study
NHS Deep Dive - Transforming Trainee Pharmacist Training - A Single Lead Employer Model
Speaker:
Uzoma Ibechukwu, Director of Pharmacy & Medicines Optimisation, Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust (Provisionally Confirmed)
Session Overview:
A deep dive into the case study on the success of Bath, Swindon and Wiltshire ICS, introducing a Single Lead Employer model for trainee pharmacists. Developed collaboratively in response to high vacancy rates and changes to pharmacists' education, the model supports multi-sector placements.
A look at how this innovative approach is already enhancing recruitment, retention and training quality, which is helping build a sustainable, integrated pharmacy workforce. Showcasing its success by being shortlisted for the HSJ Workforce Initiative of the Year award.
Case Study
Case Study
Workshop - Are You Sweating the Right Sprout?
Do you...
- Find that day to day demands affect your well-being?
- Feel that negative stress affects your health?
- Want to cope more positively with setbacks?
- Want to learn practical, ‘no- nonsense’ tools to manage these demanding times more positively?
Then this session is for you...
- Put stress in its place - the cabbages and stress link.
- Recognise and manage overwhelm more effectively - the cabbage or sprout conundrum.
- Deal with the demands of life, work and these challenging times - Slicing, Dicing and Sweating - positive coping tips.
- Developing a Resilient/‘Self Care’ Focus - meet your ‘inner ????’ (One final secret vegetable)
The session will be engaging, interactive and fun, whilst providing you with practical, no-nonsense tips and tools to implement in your day to day life.
Afternoon Skill Clinic - Building the NHS Analytical Workforce: Professional Pathways, Networks & Future Skills (TBC)
Session Overview:
This mini panel brings together representatives from AphA’s core leadership, professional registration team, and regional networks to explore the evolving role of healthcare analysts within the NHS workforce. The discussion will highlight the emerging professional pathways, the value of community-led networks, and the skills needed to meet the demands of modern health and care delivery.
Delegates will gain practical insight into how analytics capability underpins workforce planning, service improvement, and organisational resilience.
Breakout Skill Clinic - Operationalising Workforce Change: Local Solutions, Shared Challenges, Cultural Transformation, Retention, and a Supportive Workforce Environment (TBC)
Session Overview:
This in-depth session will explore future workforce supply and capability, examining:
- Scaling apprenticeships and alternative entry pathways.
- Workforce mobility and flexible deployment models.
- Strengthening clinical and non-clinical skill pipelines.
- Embedding continuous professional development within service delivery.
- Partnerships between the NHS, academia, and industry for long-term workforce resilience.
- Digital workforce capability and new technical skillsets.
- Embedding wellbeing into operational practice.
The session will focus on practical enablers, implementation barriers, and transferable solutions that can be applied across ICBs and provider collaboratives.
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Limited places
Limited places
Limited places
