Putting People First case study: workforce development

Transcription

1 Putting People First case study: workforce development Summary 1. Lincolnshire County Council has developed a workforce strategy and delivery plan to support the delivery of Putting People First (PPF). This involved consultation with key stakeholders in the independent and voluntary sectors, the NHS, service users and their carers. There was also a detailed analysis of the national minimum data set for social care. Key learning for other councils 2. Key lessons for other authorities who are developing a workforce plan to support the delivery of PPF include: Putting in place a high level strategy which, through a process of consultation and engagement, is owned by all stakeholders, can be key to ensuring that the range of workforce development activity is properly linked together and working towards a shared vision and objectives. Linked to this, it is critical to devote sufficient time, effort and resources to consulting all key stakeholders. It is important to recognise that the plan will need constant review and updating to ensure that it continues to deliver against key priorities. New emerging government policy/strategy needs to be incorporated on an ongoing basis and appropriate actions put in place. What was done and why 3. To support the delivery of its PPF programme, Lincolnshire began to develop its workforce strategy and delivery plan in 2008, involving all key stakeholders (from within the authority as well as service users and their carers, key partners in the independent and voluntary sectors and NHS organisations) from the outset. A one day workforce strategy visioning event with these stakeholders marked the beginning of the process. This helped identify what people who use services wanted from the workforce, and what the workforce considered were some of the opportunities and challenges in achieving this. The findings were used to inform the draft workforce strategy which was then consulted upon more widely. 4. A vision and outcomes for the workforce were developed, to reflect the views of service users as well as meeting the national and local objectives of personalising services. The vision developed was for: A highly skilled, valued and accountable workforce drawn from all sectors of the community. This trained and trusted workforce will provide imaginative and innovative services, and resources which will meet people s outcomes looking at individuals in their personal, family and community context. Alongside carers and volunteers, the c:\documents and settings\johne\my documents\kate\workforce development case study.doc 23/06/10

2 workforce will make a difference contributing to people s health, happiness and well being During the consultation phase, short focus groups were held with people who use services and their carers (easy read materials were produced for this, with management jargon removed), as well as separate focus groups for independent sector representatives and local authority managers and staff. The feedback from this engagement shaped the final draft of the workforce strategy and delivery plan. The Department of Health Strategy for the Adult Social Care Workforce in England 2 also helped to shape the final workforce strategy and delivery plan, which were signed off by the Joint Workforce and People Strategy Board (comprising representatives from the independent and voluntary care sector, the NHS and the local authority) in June Over the following six months, the workforce planning and development team undertook further detailed analysis of the current workforce profile across Lincolnshire using the national minimum data set for social care (NMDS sc) and worked closely with the PPF team and strategic commissioners to assess the future needs of the workforce. The key challenge was to address the future need to deliver improved and personalised services while also achieving efficiency savings. This phase of the workforce planning process enabled the authority to better understand where gaps currently exist and where gaps may develop in the future. The workforce strategy and delivery plan were updated following this To deliver the workforce vision and associated outcomes, Lincolnshire developed the following strategic workforce priorities: Table 1: Lincolnshire Strategic Workforce Priorities Leadership, Management Transformation and culture change across the adult social care sector Development and Culture Change to support personalisation including: Recruitment, Retention and Career Pathways Learning and Development Change Management Programme Staff engagement Getting Involved Getting Connected Leadership and Management Development Programme Recruitment and retention of people from across the population, representative of the people we support, to enable delivery of personalisation including: Promotion of range of retention initiatives to support Independent and Voluntary sector employers Delivery of events promoting careers in health and social care targeting under-represented groups including younger people, people opting for a career change, people with experience as a carer or a user of services Workforce across the sector equipped to support Personalisation and Putting People First through learning and development strategies to: Enable delivery of person centred services, self directed support and self management 1 Lincolnshire County Council,2009, Achieving a high quality workforce to put people first in Lincolnshire _2010.pdf 2 Department of Health, 2009, Working to Put People First: The Strategy for the Adult Social Care Workforce in England 3 The updated plan and strategy can be viewed at the following link: 2

3 Workforce Planning Develop skills to safeguard adults including risk enablement and interagency working Develop skills in commissioning for commissioners, senior leaders and managers Effective workforce planning processes in place across adult social care services including: Workforce planning tools and information offered to managers across the sector Developing integrated workforce plan with NHS Lincolnshire Developing the New Model of Working for Personalisation which will incorporate the customer journey that can be navigated through by whoever the person chooses. 8. The process has involved a wide range of stakeholders, and there are significant changes and associated workforce development activity taking place across services, some of which the authority has no direct control over. This has meant that having a high level strategy which, through the process of consultation and engagement is owned by all stakeholders, has been very important. The strategy and plan have provided a process for ensuring that the range of workforce development activity is properly linked together and focused around a mutual stated vision and outcomes. For example, the independent sector has just produced a workforce plan, and this is structured around the vision and outcomes of the strategy. Challenges 9. Assessing the impact of future needs on the workforce is a complex task given the degree of change that is currently being experienced by Adult Social Care. An ongoing process of monitoring and review is therefore required to ensure the workforce plan delivers service and business objectives, as well as taking into account new and emerging government policies. 10. The challenge of achieving efficiencies whilst also delivering improved services has meant that the authority is initially focusing on the remodelling of the workforce through redesigning care pathways so they are fit for purpose. The authority will also be supporting the workforce in reablement (i.e. enabling service users to remain or return to live in their own homes) to reduce unnecessary dependency on services 4. The authority recognises that there will be challenges and tensions over the next two years, with difficult decisions to be made, however senior management and key partners remain committed to delivering their workforce vision and outcomes. 11. Achieving the workforce vision and outcomes through effective workforce planning continues to require the sustained commitment of senior managers and staff as well as key partners of the local authority, including service providers in the independent and voluntary sectors. The authority recognises that they need to continue to focus on embedding workforce planning in recognition that they will only effect change if each individual agency across the sector plans their workforce to support service redesign and remodelling. 12. Effective governance arrangements for monitoring, evaluating and communicating progress as well as for managing risk have been critical for a programme of this magnitude and required a co-ordinated approach. In Lincolnshire, this has been achieved through the PPF 4 Reablement is defined by the Department of Health as: the use of timely and focused intensive therapy and care in a person s home to improve their choice and quality of life, so that people can maximise their long term independence by enabling them to remain or return to live in their own homes within the community. 3

4 programme structure: the PPF programme comprises of eight workstreams, one of which is leadership, culture change and workforce development. This workstream is overseen by the PPF programme board which monitors progress as well as the management of risk. A Joint Workforce and People Strategy Board is also in place, and oversees direction of the strategy. To support this, a workforce implementation team (at the delivery end) meet every two weeks to update on any issues. This group is responsible for updating the risk register, producing highlight reports and for managing the communications plan. 13. Finally, the workforce planning process has highlighted the need for the authority to improve their management information systems including forecasting supply and demand for services to be commissioned and, in turn, the capacity and skills of the workforce required for the future. The gap analysis process has, however, enabled them to identify the actions they need to take to start to address this. Outcomes and impact 14. To achieve the vision for their workforce the authority aims, through the workforce strategy, to deliver a workforce that will: Provide personalised services closer to home giving choice and control to people who use services and their carers. Work across organisational boundaries including local government social care, leisure, housing and education, the NHS, the independent and third sector in partnership with people who use services, their carers and volunteers to co-produce the outcomes desired. Have the core skills and competencies to meet the needs of the diversity of people who use services. Have transferable skills to be able to respond to the changing needs of adult social care provision. Identify proactively events and circumstances in the lives of people who use services that may present a risk to their health and well being, and know how to get them addressed. 15. The delivery plan contains performance targets which will be reviewed to measure whether these outcomes are being realised. Review and evaluation arrangements will be further developed once the new Model of Working for Personalisation 5 is agreed but will include: Benchmarking of data to enable comparison of the position in 2011 with the current position. Feedback through individual reviews from people who use services and their carers. Feedback from staff across all organisations through staff surveys and staff reference groups. Feedback from strategic managers across all organisations through Joint Commissioning Boards. Feedback from operational managers in relation to the impact on operational service delivery objectives. 5 This refers to the authority s proposed review of the way in which the customer journey (comprising all or some of the following stages: universal, early intervention and preventive services; customer service centre and the web; short term support/intervention (crisis response, assistive technology, equipment, reablement and intermediate care); and maintenance self directed support) is delivered. 4

5 What could have been done better? 16. The process from developing the vision to producing the workforce strategy and plan took a considerable amount of time (about 18 months). A key reason for this was that the team consulted first on strategy and once they had agreement on this they began work on the more detailed plan. In hindsight, they would streamline the process, developing both strategy and draft plan together and going out for wider consultation on both at the same time. 17. The time intensive nature of engagement with partners also contributed to the longer timescale. However this more detailed engagement has meant that partners have a good understanding of the issues and the authority understands their issues. This has had a benefit in that all partners have improved ownership as a result. Next Steps 18. The initial focus of the workforce delivery plan is to support the delivery of the PPF Strategy. Other workforce plans are also being developing to deliver emerging national and local policy and these will be incorporated into the delivery plan on a phased basis. This includes workforce plans to support the National Dementia Strategy, Carers Strategy, Valuing People Now, No Secrets (Safeguarding), the National End of Life Care Strategy, the Shaping the Future of Care Together Green Paper, and national guidance on Person Centred Approaches For further information please contact: Fiona Thompson, Head of HR Business Strategy fiona.thompson@lincolnshire.gov.uk 5