Policy Work

Experts in Our Midst: Recognising the contribution NHS diaspora staff make to global health

Our latest pivotal report explores the contribution NHS diaspora staff make to global health. Composing 15% of the NHS’ workforce, their expertise, knowledge and leadership is often overlooked and as a result the NHS risks losing its global reputation at a crucial time.

Experts in Our Midst explores the broader current context and promotes the marginalised voices of diaspora NHS staff within the wider, often hostile, environment. We know that diaspora NHS staff have always played a valuable role in Health Partnerships. What we did not know was the scale of their engagement, the challenges faced, nor how best to amplify their voices to demonstrate the impact diaspora can have on global health projects.

To read the full report please click here.

From Competition to Collaboration: Ethical Leadership in an Era of Health Worker Mobility

A highly anticipated report which examines how the UK’s ambitions to increase international recruitment sit alongside – and often undermine – long standing UK commitments to support the development of health services in LMICs.

The report argues that the UK can no longer take for granted its status as a ‘destination of choice’ for health workers, and is written with a conviction that the UK’s response to the global shortage of health workers should be to forge closer, more collaborative links between our health service and those of LMICs in order to establish the UK as a trusted partner internationally.

The Transition from Aid

In the paper we make the case that for aid to alleviate extreme poverty in the poorest countries, but also to create commercial opportunities in better off countries, it is important to recognise the role of UK engagement with middle-income countries (MICs). In particular, we argue that the UK’s healthcare sector should be seen as a vital component of this revised approach to aid as the economies of MICs continue to grow. The NHS is widely regarded as the UK’s most treasured institution, and yet its potential as a driver of development and commercial exchange between the UK and other countries is under developed.

This paper is primarily intended to stimulate discussion but we also make a number of specific recommendations which we believe have the power to maximise soft power gains, establish the UK as a leader in global workforce development and increase the commercial success of the NHS and wider UK healthcare ecosystem international.

Please click here to read the paper

Our policy paper In Our Mutual Interest shares the learning acquired by THET over many years working at the heart of the health partnership movement. Examining the opportunities and challenges associated with this approach, this report points to the huge benefit that can be derived by both the UK and our partners and governments overseas when the right balance is struck between our own organisational and national interest, and the interest of people living in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Please click here to read the paper