[UK] MRC PhD Studentship at University of Aberdeen
MRC PhD Studentship: NHS staff skill mix and local labour markets
College of Life Sciences & Medicine Graduate School, University of Aberdeen
The NHS has undergone rapid changes in recent years. These have had a significant impact on the pay and work of all three of the major staff groups in the NHS: medical, nursing and scientific technical and therapeutic staff (ST&T staff, formally including the group professions allied to medicine – PAMS). The drivers of change include the new consultant contract, the European Working Time Directive (EWTD), and the introduction of Agenda for Change - the new system of pay put in place in 2004 for all non-medical staff. These changes come at a time when there are shortages of staff in some areas of the country. There is provision within the new pay arrangements to allow for geographical variation in pay to address local labour market conditions but these have not been implemented. Research by the applicants has established a link between regional pay and the supply of skilled nursing and ST&T staff to the NHS. This revealed how local labour market conditions impact on the NHS work force. Health providers faced with staff shortages but unable to adjust pay to alleviate the shortage will find alternative ways of resolving the problem. One way is to adjust skill-mix, to change the relative contributions of health professionals by workforce restructuring. Changes in skill-mix may have important consequences for service delivery and patient outcomes.
Aims
The research will meet the foll owing specific aims:
Summarise trends in staff numbers and in workforce composition for the three main professional groups employed by the NHS;
Use economic theory to identity the underlying drivers and to model skill;
Use data on work-force and local labour market conditions to tests and explore the predictions of this model;
In so doing consider evidence of whether local labour market conditions have an impact on skill mix
Link the model of skill-mix to a variety of outcome measures and explore the impact of potential sub-optimal configurations on patient outcomes;
Use the model to provide estimates of the optimal work-force configuration and identify the incentives required to realise the optimal configuration.
Study information
- Qualification: PhD
- Study duration: 36 months
- Study mode: FT
- Start month:October 2008
- Entry requirements: Applicants should have or be about to complete a Masters degree in economics or other related discipline
Funding information
- Funder:Medical Research Council (Capacity Building Studentship)
- Number of awards per year:1
- Funding applies to:EU applicants (including UK)
- Application deadline:31 May 2008
Contacts and how to apply
Academic contact:
- Professor Bob Elliot r.elliott@abdn.ac.uk http://www.abdn.ac.uk/heru/staff/director.php
- Dr Diane Skatun d.skatun@abdn.ac.uk http://www.abdn.ac.uk/heru/staff/research.php
