“Evidence-based decision-making on safe and effective staffing is a requirement for all NHS organisations.”
NHS England 2026
This virtual conference focuses on delivering safe and effective nurse staffing levels and skill mix in practice. The conference will support you to ensure evidence-based approaches to effective staffing decisions, taking into account all elements that contribute to safe, effective care and patient experience.
The evidence is clear that safe and effective nurse staffing levels improve the quality of care and patient safety. The important issues of skill mix, acuity monitoring, recognising red flag events and escalation will be discussed. There will be an extended session focusing on evidence informed decision support tools for safe staffing, managing acuity and skill mix, ensuring an effective balance between registered nurses, nursing associates and advanced clinical practitioners, and an update on how to combine national tools with professional judgement. Through extended sessions and practical NHS Trust case studies delivered by experienced nurses experts in safe staffing, the conference will take a practical approach to supporting you to improve nursing staffing and skill mix in your service.
“Providers must continually evaluate individual services by monitoring actual numbers and skill mix of clinical staff on duty against planned numbers and skill mix, on a shift-by-shift basis.”
NHS Standard Contract updated 17th April 2026
“It is critical to stratify services to meet individuals’ needs, ensuring staffing/skill-mix reflect the range of requirements across acuity, complexity, dependency and intensity of needs.”
NHS England March 2026
“Staff skill mix should be matched to the acuity and dependency of patients/service users.”
RCN Nursing Workforce Standards
This conference will enable you to:
Network with colleagues who are working to improve safe staffing
Explore the National Nursing Workforce Standards and understand how to apply them in practice
Learn from outstanding practice in using evidence informed decision support tools for safe staffing, and combining tools with professional judgement methods
Reflect on national developments and learning
Improve reporting, monitoring and assurance
Develop your skills in monitoring acuity, dependency and skill mix
Understand how you can improve real time monitoring, escalation and the use of Red Flags
Explore the role of AI in safe staffing
Learn from best practice at Ward Level
Explore case studies from various clinical areas
Self assess and reflect on your own practice
Supports CPD professional development and acts as revalidation evidence. This course provides 5 Hrs training for CPD subject to peer group approval for revalidation purposes
