The HEROES Joint Action brings together 51 entities – beneficiaries, affiliated entities, and associated partners – from most EU countries. HEROES focuses on health workforce planning and forecasting in the context of system transformation and emerging models of care.
In 2024, the European Commission DG SANTE asked EFN to join the Joint Action as Associated Partner, together with other important EU partners like CPME. As of 2025, EFN is officially an Associated Partner of the Joint Action HEROES, and was therefore invited to attend the EU Policy Dialogue organised by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. The policy dialogue was the first steps towards the development of an EU level Action Plan, which is planned as one of the final deliverables of the Joint Action HEROES.
The policy dialogue focused on three key themes: 1. Planning for transformation: How workforce planning and forecasting can support innovative models of care and align skills with system reforms; 2. Country use and implementation: Sharing experiences from countries already integrating tools and data into policy to accelerate uptake; and 3. Sustaining HEROES results: Ensuring that the knowledge and tools developed under HEROES are embedded in national and EU level frameworks for long term resilience.
Importantly, under the second theme, DG SANTE, together with the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, explored the results of the survey on Safe Staffing Levels conducted in the Health Systems Performance Assessment (HSPA) Expert Group, sharing national examples from Slovenia, Sweden and Malta. EFN has done a lot of work on this topic, including in the context of the Nursing Action, where EFN developed a Policy Brief on Safe Staffing Levels with the input of the EFN Members. EFN will continue to follow the work on this important topic, both in the HSPA and in the JA HEROES, in order to ensure alignment towards concrete outcomes for frontline nurses!
EFN will continue to follow closely the work done in the JA HEROES, which is coming to an end in 2026, towards successful exploitation of the JA results for the benefit of frontline nurses.