The 3rd Stakeholder Forum: Strengthening the sustainability of health workforce planning
On 2 February 2026, the 3rd Stakeholder Forum of the HEROES Joint Action brought together policymakers, planners, researchers, professional organisations and European stakeholders for a focused exchange on the sustainability of health workforce planning systems across Europe. Held online, the Forum took place at a key moment in the final phase of the Joint Action, providing space to reflect on progress achieved and to explore how results can be sustained beyond the project’s lifetime.
HEROES builds on more than a decade of European cooperation in health workforce planning. With partners from 19 countries, the Joint Action supports Member States in strengthening their capacity to plan for a workforce that ensures accessible, sustainable and resilient health services. As the project enters its final phase, attention has increasingly shifted from development to continuity, institutionalisation and long-term impact.
Alignment, improvement and sustainability: three pillars for the future of HEROES
Looking ahead– starting presentation by coordination team emphasised that -the future of HEROES is built around three interlinked pillars: alignment, improvement and sustainability, which together support more resilient, equitable and forward-looking health systems across Europe.
Alignment focuses on harmonising data, planning approaches and skills across countries, while strengthening collaboration and reducing fragmentation. Through bilateral partnerships, shared forecasting models and mutual learning, alignment helps build a common foundation for health workforce planning at European level.
Improvement goes beyond refining existing practices. It involves embracing innovation, strengthening data and modelling capacity, integrating more complex demand indicators and preparing for technological change and evolving team dynamics. Country examples demonstrated how planning systems are becoming more sophisticated, adaptive and future-oriented.
Sustainability ensures that health workforce planning is not a one-off project, but a permanent, well-governed and adequately funded policy function embedded in national health systems. Sustainability was repeatedly linked to institutional ownership, political commitment and continuous dialogue between policymakers, planners and stakeholders. Together, these three pillars illustrate how HEROES supports the transition from project-based initiatives towards lasting system-level impact.
From data to workforce intelligence
A central contribution of the Forum was the presentation of the Framework for Sustainable Workforce Intelligence Systems, introduced by Thomas Hughes (WHO Regional Office for Europe). The framework emphasises that effective workforce planning goes beyond data and forecasting models, highlighting workforce intelligence as actionable insight for policy and decision-making.
The framework brings together four interdependent domains: data and models, planners’ capabilities, governance arrangements, and political and contextual support. Discussions highlighted that countries are at different stages of development and therefore face different priorities. Rather than promoting a one-size-fits-all solution, the framework supports countries in identifying what matters most at their current stage of development.
Discussion highlights
Discussions at the Stakeholder Forum were framed around two guiding questions:
– How can health workforce planning be sustained beyond the lifetime of EU-funded projects?
Participants emphasised the need to move from project-based activities towards permanent, institutionalised planning functions supported by stable governance and funding.
– How can alignment and collaboration be strengthened across sectors and levels of governance?
Contributions highlighted the importance of linking workforce planning with education, labour and broader EU initiatives, while reducing fragmentation and duplication through coordination and mutual learning. Across discussions, a shared understanding emerged that sustainable health workforce planning requires system-level thinking, continuous dialogue and institutional ownership.
Country insights: from planning tools to system change
Country examples by the coordination team presentation illustrated how Member States are translating health workforce planning into concrete and sustainable practice. Examples discussed during the Forum included Italy, highlighted the ongoing overhaul of the national health workforce information system, including the introduction of advanced demand indicators and specialty-specific forecasting; Sweden, which is pioneering a capability-based approach shifting the focus from individual professionals to team-level capabilities and outcomes; and Estonia, which is transitioning from fragmented planning processes towards a centralised national model.
Further examples highlighted Germany and Lithuania, where forecasting, monitoring and data integration are increasingly anchored in legislation and institutional responsibilities, as well as Hungary, where four key national-level actions were identified to strengthen the sustainability of workforce planning systems: organising regular national policy dialogues involving all relevant stakeholders; establishing formal interministerial coordination mechanisms linking health, finance and education sectors; creating permanent methodological coordination platforms connecting workforce planners and data owners; and embedding adapted forecasting and planning models into national decision-making processes
A dedicated country presentation was delivered by Malta, where Andrew Azzopardi (Ministry for Health, Malta) presented how health workforce planning has been embedded into national health strategy through permanent governance arrangements, competence-based planning tools and continuous capacity-building. Malta’s experience illustrated how project-based developments can be translated into stable institutional structures with long-term policy relevance.
Health workforce planning is not just about numbers – it is about people.
Participants stressed that sustainable planning must go beyond headcounts and projections, considering competencies, team dynamics, working conditions and the lived realities of health professionals.
Looking beyond the Joint Action
As HEROES approaches its conclusion, discussions at the Stakeholder Forum highlighted a shared understanding: sustainability is not an endpoint, but a continuous process. The value of HEROES lies not only in its tools and frameworks, but in the capacity built, partnerships strengthened and shared learning fostered across Europe.
Maintaining momentum will require continued policy dialogue, mutual learning and the integration of workforce planning outputs into decision-making processes at national and European level. Building on the foundations laid through HEROES, Member States and stakeholders are better positioned to support a health workforce that is prepared to meet future challenges and evolving health system needs.