Health and Social Care Integrated Workforce Annual Report 2020-2021

You can find our 2019/2020 Annual Report here

Introduction

Our Bradford and District anchor partnership, the Health and Social Care Economic Partnership (HSCEP), has brought our academic and health and social care (H&SC) organisations together to address our population’s health and economic needs through a focus on H&SC workforce transformation. We are working together across organisational boundaries, pooling our collective resources to deliver our workforce priorities with a culture of system workforce transformation through ‘Acting as One’.

Our vision is to have “a proud and compassionate health and social care workforce that reflects and is built around the assets of our local communities.  Our people have the skills and knowledge to meet the needs of local employers leading to more people in work. The sector in return provides our well looked after people with a career for life, through good jobs and progression routes within our district – enabling our workforce to Act as One to keep people happy, health and at home.”.

This report celebrates the successes of our partnership working during 2020/21.

Thank you

Tina laffertyPlay Video

As joint chairs of the Health and Social Care Economic Partnership, responsible for achieving our workforce vision, we are delighted to see the fantastic progress that was made during the challenging year of 2020-21. As academic and NHS Trust leaders we have enjoyed our collaborative approach to achieving greater impact than we could have done independently. We would also like to thank our existing workforce for all their hard work over this last year, and look forward to welcoming new talent from across the district to join us in the year ahead.

Shirley Congdon

Shirley Congdon

Vice Chancellor, University of Bradford
Bradon Brown picture

Brendan Brown

Chief Executive, Airedale NHS Foundation Trust

Acting as one

Our plan! The Integrated People Plan has been drawn up, capturing the range of actions we have committed to undertake together for the benefit of our current and future workforce. We have a senior lead for each of our objectives and will next be setting some Key Performance Indicators to ensure we stay on track with delivering our ambitions.

During 2020 we formalised our new arrangements for working together as a system, through a Chief Executive level board (Health and Social Care Economic Partnership) and HR Director led delivery group (Integrated People Board).  All supported by our system workforce team and colleagues from across all organisations and parts of the sector.

During 2020 we formalised our new arrangements for working together as a system, through a Chief Executive level board (Health and Social Care Economic Partnership) and HR Director led delivery group (Integrated People Board).  All supported by our system workforce team and colleagues from across all organisations and parts of the sector.

“Our people are at the heart of everything that we do. Our Integrated People Plan sets out a range of actions that will benefit our current and future workforce and I’m really proud of the progress we have made. Over the past year we have focused lots of our time on establishing projects to help us to attract, grow, develop and retain our workforce, and look after our people. This has felt more important than ever as we have navigated the pandemic. As we move forward we will build on this good work and look forward to working with colleagues across the sector to raise the bar in delivery across the full plan”.

Sandra Knight 

Sandra Knight picture

Sandra Knight

Chair of Integrated People Board
Director of HR and OD,
Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust

Growing and retaining our workforce

Grow our collective workforce for the future by recruiting and retaining our people. To be the best place to work; enabling people to progress and fulfil their potential by providing ‘careers for life’.

  • The One Workforce Hub website was launched in early 2021 as a digital resource for our current and future talent. The site has been used to feature live events and promote the Act as One Festival, along with providing training support for Covid vaccination. Sign up to the site’s regular newsletter to hear about the ongoing developments and key opportunities for you, including training, development, and a showcase of the range of roles in the sector.
  • The need for oral health training for our independent care providers was recognised with a successful pilot in early 2021.
  • Following a district wide skills needs analysis, funding was brought in to help our support staff with learning about the user experience (walking in your shoes), and digital skills support.  These will continue throughout 2021. The pilot in March 21 saw 68 people engage from across the sector (local authority, care providers and VCS).
  • A fantastic apprenticeship scheme run by All Star Entertainment was set up to support six young people in gaining a youth work qualification. They have set up and run a diverse range of activities over the last year – from mental health support videos with Living Well to influencing the work of Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust. On working with Hail and Locala, one of the apprentices was quoted as saying “It was a pleasure and privilege being asked to be a sexual health advocate for Locala– sexual health is really important and it helps to keep people healthy, informed and saves lives.”
  • We have increased student places, to fill additional courses supporting H&SC vacancies

Inclusive community recruitment

  • Over the last 12 months SkillsHouse has seen significant investment and growth in capacity, and has become a lead in supporting recruitment for the district, with a special focus on health and social care.
  • Read the personal story of a beneficiary of the support here.
  • The One Workforce Hub funded Community Recruitment project has funded Community Engagement Officers to be based within the service and with our 3 local colleges to ensure a district wide reach. The project initially focused on engaging with local communities, working with job seekers and supporting those furthest from work. During the first two years of the project (2019/2020 and 2020/21), we successfully provided information, advice and guidance to 1407 people from our local communities. Of these:
    1. 165 have been supported to move into formal/ vocational health and social care related training
    2. 51 have been supported to take up voluntary work within the health and social care sector
    3. 253 have been supported into jobs within the health and social care sector
  • In support of the Track and Trace programme, SkillsHouse recruited COVID Support Worker role for Bradford Council. Over 815 people applied with more than 260 people being offered employment.
  • During the height of the pandemic in 2020, SkillsHouse recruited experienced care workers to join Bradford Council’s casual pool, to support the care sector with their vacancies. There were 152 applications, with 39 individuals enrolled on to training courses and 14 individuals interviewed by the Council for the role. Around 10 individuals have been able to secure employment following this care academy process.
  • In support of the Covid-vaccination programme, Skillshousesupported Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with recruiting vaccination administration roles, with over 150 applications and 31 offered employment (some since taking permanent roles).
  • The Kickstartplacement scheme was launched nationally in 2020, supported locally by SkillsHouse. They identified 150 health and social care specific placements across 31 organisations in the district.

Supporting careers in to health and social care through our Careers and Technical Education H&SC team.

Shaped by employers, schools and colleges this sector-based careers pathways approach to Careers and Technical Education (CTE), equips learners with future proof, transferable experiences and skills to move beyond post 16 choices with ease.

  • Over the last year links have been strengthened across the full health and social care sector, kick starting new programmes of work as well as realising some longer term objectives.
  • The health and social care CTE Board is part of a strong governance structure, with a new chair coming in to role early in 2021 – Amanda Stanford, Chief Nurse, Airedale NHS FT.
  • Scoping work has taken place across a number of career pathways, including nursing, providing a clearer picture for students on the potential journeys in to these roles and opportunities beyond it.
  • The connection with schools continues to grow.  The latest connections in 20/21 have been with Immanuel, Holy Family, Bradford Forster, Appleton Academy, One in a Million.
  • An industry guide for health sciences has been developed to support students with understanding the opportunities within the sector.
Iain MacbeathPlay Video

Ian MacBeath

Hear about Ian MacBeath’s career journey
RupaliPlay Video

Rupali Patel

The One Workforce Hub hosted two graduate interns during the pandemic hear about Rupali’s Patel’s experience.

Look after our people

For our people to be safe and well at work, physically and psychologically

  • Through the challenging year of 2020 our colleagues’ health and wellbeing has been central to our thoughts. This has spearheaded some dedicated support with Bradford District and Craven leading the way for a regional health and wellbeing suite of online resources.
  • Funding has been secured to support people dealing with Long Covid.
  • All our health and wellbeing initiatives have received an inclusivity lens through our engagement activities for people from ethnic minorities – leading to support being more accessible to all.

Create a sense of belonging

To create a compassionate and inclusive culture where everyone feels they belong, have a voice and feel empowered to make a difference. A suite of leadership and management development opportunities have been created over the last year:

  • A new leadership MSc launched with taster sessions run in the early part of 2021.
  • Local co-ordination of the regionally run programme, The Fellowship, for our aspiring leaders from ethnic minorities. The first part of the programme for aspiring directors saw seven colleagues successful in joining the fellowship and gaining valuable experience in system wide working.
  • The VCS and health and care system launched a VCS specific leadership programme in Spring 2021.  It was co-designed with people from a range of different backgrounds and professional levels, with the aim of helping people become better leaders in their roles, regardless of position and experience.

Developing new ways of working

To transform the way we deliver care by maximising digitalisation and enabling our people to act as one.

  • The first steps have been taken in creating the region’s Workforce Observatory, with the Bradford District leading the way. This will support the sector to understand future workforce needs, with all the latest data and intelligence connected and in one place.
  • Our act as one approach continues to be embedded throughout our workforce, allowing us to put the needs of our population first and thinking about the whole person.
  • A senior leadership train the trainer programme was established creating a leadership community of practice, important as our system leaders will be integral in driving forward new ways of working.

NEXT STEPS

What we will be doing this year 2021-2022

We will continue to influence, drive and deliver the integrated workforce transformation programme, examples of the work we will lead this year include:

Exploring career progression pathways – e.g. how do I become a paramedic or registered manager in care? What else can I do with my qualifications or experience? We will demonstrate the range of opportunities available to those looking at careers in the sector.

Following the success of our employee health and wellbeing support packages, we will create a comprehensive local web presence on the One Workforce Hub website, to ensure ease of access for all.

Our approach to equality, diversity and inclusion will continue to grow and take centre stage in everything we do. A health and social care inclusion network will be developed, along with further opportunities to access unique development opportunities including supporting women in to leadership.

Through co-design and engagement, our workforce observatory will mature and provide invaluable intelligence for our workforce development.

Establishing clear routes for people in to work in the sector at a variety of levels and connect recruitment together across Bradford District and Craven – this will help address the high levels of redundancy from the pandemic. We will connect with the Bradford Works programme model to support this further.

Continue to work with Further Education/ Higher Education providers to deliver our local response to the White Paper, “Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunities and Growth”. This includes delivery of our whole sector approach to curriculum development and learning through the Future Technologies Centre – Health and Social Care Board. The FTCs plan to capitalise on accelerated technological change and will inspire careers of the future, with the right skills development and training for those future jobs that are just beginning to break through into the economy.

Connect regionally on updating/ improving apprenticeship and levy opportunities.

Addressing our shared procurement approaches that will benefit the workforce.

System approach to placements to ensure our employers can offer sufficient opportunities to enable demand for higher and further education courses to be met. To support this we will also address our system approach to work experience and supported internships.

Continue to work with partners across the district to explore and develop new ways of working and delivering care.

As we move into year three of the inclusive recruitment project, the focus of the project will shift to system wide recruitment, having secured commitment from partners on HSCEP to work towards a shared approach to entry level recruitment across health and social care. This will enable SkillsHouse to provide a full end to end service for job seekers from initial referral to successful job outcome. We will also continue to work with and support people from our local communities, as a core part of our work.

The careers and technical education programme will deliver a district wide careers festival in July 2021 to help connect educators.