Three approaches to safe staffing levels.

We have a natural experiment emerging, with different UK countries looking at different approaches to NHS nurse staffing. For example, in June, Scotland first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that Scotland will enshrine the use of existing local nurse workforce planning tools in law. This was misrepresented in some media coverage as being about legislated staffing levels, but it actually legislates what was already common local practice: flexibility framed by tested workforce tools, underpinned by professional judgement.