Meeting documents

The Committee is looking at the issue of recruitment and retention of adult social care as it presents potential significant challenges to service provision for Adult Social Care.

The Committee will receive:

·         An overview of current workforce pressures and recruitment and retention issues. A Position Statement is attached providing contextual information of the current workforce.

·         A presentation on the draft Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care. An outline of the strategy is attached which sets out key objectives and short to longer terms actions to mitigate current issues.

·         An overview of workforce development and succession planning to meet future demands.

Contributors:

Rachel Rothero, Service Director, Communities, Health & Adult Social Care Directorate, (CHASC)

Selena Gardiner, Workforce Development Manager – CHASC

Isobel Gardiner, HR Business Partner - CHASC

Sinclair Coward, Head of Department of Social Work, Buckinghamshire New University

Mr T Boyd, Managing Director, Communities, Health and Adult Social Care, Ms I Ellison, Business Partner, Ms S Gardiner, Learning and Development Team Manager, Mr J Drury, Prime Care Support Limited and Mr S Coward, Head of the Academic Department, Social Work and Integrated Care, Bucks New University were welcomed to the meeting.

Members received an update on:

·           Position Statement of the ASC Workforce

·           Background to Adult Social Care Sector

·           The Buckinghamshire Picture

·           Bucks workforce overview and key issues

·           Risks

·           Workforce Strategy & Implementation Plan

During discussions, the following key points were highlighted.

·         It is predicted that there will be 124,865 people aged 65+ in Bucks by 2026 - an increase of 31.84%.

·         In terms of the Adult Social Care (ASC) workforce nationally, there would be an increase in all roles which could be difficult in terms of recruitment. More workers would be needed for all roles.

·         There had been an increase in the number of Personal Assistants as a result of Direct Payments.

·         There was the issue of an aging workforce as well as an aging population.

·         An increase in National Living Wage (NLW) would put pressure on care providers, with a knock on effect on those paid the minimum wage and well as an effect on future contracts and spot purchasing.

·         Over 300 establishments were involved in the delivery of ASC in Bucks covering 10,200 jobs.

·         The number of care workers was expected to rise by 55% by 2025.

·         There was an average turnover of 25.4% of the workforce in Bucks, a figure similar to the rest of the country.

·         In terms of workforce churns, 2 in 5 members of staff move role within their sector.

·         A large number of care workers would reach retirement age in the next 10-20 years.

·         Vacancy rates for ASC were higher than the average of other sectors.

·         80% of care workers were female.

·         Staff sickness rates were high as a result of the high pressures on resources. The average sickness rate for ASC workers was 6.7 days of sickness per person per year.

·         It was difficult to recruit to senior roles, particularly given the better pay from agencies and the higher rates of pay in London and other neighbouring authorities 

·         There were a lot of newly qualified social workers but an improved infrastructure needed to be in place to provide them with the necessary support. This would be an area of focus.

Mr Drury explained that Prime Care had been a care provider for 20 years and a platinum provider for 5 years.

Implementation Plan

Ms Ellison referred to the abridged version of the Adult Social Care workforce strategy in the agenda pack which looks at key priorities such as labour demand and supply issues, recruitment and retention planning, working with external providers and partners and the development of a Memorandum of Co-operation (MoC) for adult Social Workers in conjunction with ADASS in the South East region.

Key areas of work included:

·         Visits to schools, colleges, universities and recruitment fairs to raise the profile of the sector.

·         Working in conjunction with Bucks New University to ensure that students were placed within Buckinghamshire.

·         Further work around apprenticeships. There were many young people who could be interested in coming into the sector but were deterred due to perceived difficulties such as DBS checks and mandatory training.

·         Closer working with the Job Centre Plus and Further Education colleagues undertaking Level 1 qualifications.

·         Introduction classes to the sector as well as English Language courses.

·         The development of a more structured approach to career pathways.

Mr Coward gave the following update on work being undertaken by Bucks New University:

·         A series of masterclasses which included presentations from noted people from around the county sharing their expertise and skills with Bucks Social Workers. 5 courses were held in 2015 which were well attended. The agreement had been signed for a further set of masterclasses in 2016.

·         Pop up classes to update and upskill staff about issues such as Child Sexual Exploitation.

·         A Centre of Excellence had been created which provides a pathway for those in Bucks with little or no qualifications in the social work sector.

·         Foundation degree courses were in place in order to ensure that pathways to progress social work qualifications. The courses were initially for children’s social workers but had been extended to included adult social workers.

·         The key message was about using BNU for community development and to forge partnerships.  Ideas on how to take this forward were welcomed.

In response to questions from Members, the following areas were discussed:

·         There was learning to be shared from the Children’s Services Select Committee Inquiry into Social Worker recruitment.

·         Workforce development teams were working closely on career structures and retention packages and lessons were being learnt from work that had already taken place.

·         The figures for staff absence in Bucks were of concern. The Strategy needed to recognise the issue of staff absence and stress levels and include innovative and creative ways in which this could be addressed.

·         A Health and Wellbeing Strategy for core workers needed to be embedded in the Strategy.

·         CHASC as a Business Unit had introduced protected lunch breaks.  Signposting was in place to the Employee Assistance Programme as well as supervision and support for staff in terms of career pathways and the identification of effective and efficient ways of working.

·         A stress survey was currently being constructed which would help in terms of data collection and where efforts could be focussed to target this issue.

·         Staff sickness and stress levels were sensitive and complex issues.  There needed to be a sophisticated and qualitative means of addressing this.

·         Evidence was needed to support this statement that there was a high level of sickness because of workload.

·         Work needed to take place to look at what could be done to raise the profile of the sector, to present it in a positive light and to incentivise recruitment.

·         Lack of affordable housing for key workers was an issue.

·         Buckinghamshire did not have a bursary scheme for trainee social workers in place.

·         The Grow Your Own programme was part of the implementation plan.  .

·         Work needed to be done to explore the possibility of having more male carers in the sector.

·         Had thought been given to the local authority setting up its own Social Care recruitment agency?

·         The views of young people and carers around the issues they face needed to be taken into account as part of the Strategy.

·         One area of work is the Values Based Recruitment (VBR) approach. This was a new system relating to the social care sector introduced by the NHS. It opened the market in terms of recruitment and getting the right people into the workforce. Succession planning was also taking place.

·         The Strategy needed to be developed to include more granularity and measures/metrics to show the measures working towards i.e. a reduction in staff sickness levels.

·         Demands on the care sector such as the National Living Wage and changes to the pension arrangements were an unknown quantity from which issues could arise.

·         In view of the resources available and the number of initiatives included in the Strategy, a sound business model was needed in order for this to be effectively and efficiently implemented.

ACTIONS:

·         To collate a HASC response to current draft workforce strategy (Committee and Governance Advisor to action).

·         An invitation to the launch of the Bucks CC Social Work Academy (Centre of Excellence) would be sent to Committee Members (Mr Coward and Committee Governance Advisor to action).