Issue - meetings

This is a follow up to a report considered by the Health and Wellbeing Board on 12th January 2022. A presentation will give a workforce update on the success of the recruitment drive for additional carers.

The Committee received a presentation from Lynn Bassett, Organisational Development Team Manager and Zoe Mayhew, Strategy and Commissioning Manager within People Strategy and Commissioning. The presentation covered:

• National staffing picture – showing recruitment and retention, vacancies and a comparison between March 2021 and May 2022
• National context, with data on the increase in the number of homecare hours delivered and those it had not been possible to deliver equating to 671%
• Data on commissioned provision - comprising domiciliary care, specialist housing services, residential care, nursing homes, supported living services and extra care housing
• Learning and Development Partnership – showing examples of the support offer
• Staff learning and development – a coordinated approach with health, delivering Warwickshire specific training with a range of training offers, qualification programme, support for managers and sharing good practice
• A data slide on qualifications and training
• Training figures and training. In 2020/21 - 2,150 places attended; in 2021/22 - 3,091 places attended
• Impact of training, delivered in blended approach to increase flexibility. Keeping excellent attendance, with three-month reviews taking place to monitor impact.
• School careers support – the partnership was part of the careers hub program and was notified of career events and parents’ evenings
• College / university careers support – the partnership attended college career days to seek additional employees in either a permanent or bank role
• Promoting job vacancies – examples were provided of the range of methods used
• Recruitment support – the partnership worked with providers and other agencies to raise the profile of social care
• Impact of job vacancies and recruitment support - data for 2020/22 and 2022/23 on the number of jobs advertised, events held and what this work had achieved
• Staff retention and wellbeing – examples of the support and incentives available
• Next steps

Discussion took place on the following areas:

• Councillor Matecki spoke of the need for additional frontline carers, commenting that in Warwick district there were two vacancies for every unemployed person. The report did not mention overseas recruitment to fill vacancies.  Officers replied that a proposal to do this was currently being formulated to attract carers from overseas on behalf of commissioned providers, as an enabler.
• Councillor Marian Humphreys praised home care services. She advocated the benefits of coordinated NHS and social care visits or better still having a hybrid health and care role to reduce duplication. She outlined the many aspects to care visits at home to meet the service users’ needs and the significant training requirements. She reiterated the value of these staff which should be recognised more and be promoted in schools to attract people to this service area.
• Chris Bain said this was a complex problem, both in Warwickshire and nationally. The image of social care and to a lesser extent health was a perception of older people who were in decline. To attract younger people, it was necessary to address this image and there was a role for the media to play. Some media reporting had a negative impact, which could deter  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6