Agenda item

This report presents the Kent and Medway Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) Workforce Transformation Plan. This Plan focuses on the commitment to work together to prioritise actions that will have the biggest impact on addressing Kent and Medway’s workforce challenges. This report will be accompanied by a presentation.

Discussion:

The Kent and Medway STP Workforce Programme Director presented the report which set out, at Appendix 1, the STP Workforce Transformation Plan. The report was accompanied by a presentation. It was explained to the Joint Board that the Plan focussed on the commitment to work together to prioritise actions that it was considered would have the biggest impact on addressing Kent and Medway’s Workforce challenges. The overarching ambition was to promote Kent and Medway as a great place to live, work and learn. There were three aims supporting this ambition, which were:

·         Workforce to work together across health and social care, enjoy their work, learn in their jobs and be empowered, engaged and developed to be good at what they do;

·         Employers to work together to attract and retain the right supply of health and social care workforce through talented and capable leadership and the offer of attractive, flexible and interesting careers; and

·         Population to have the skills and support to help them manage their own health and care with confidence and, where needed, with the right support to achieve their health, social and community outcomes and goals.

There were also five key strategic priorities supported by a number of actions which were explained to the Joint Board. The five priority areas were:

·         Promoting Kent and Medway as a place to work;

·         Maximising supply of health and care workforce;

·         Developing lifelong careers;

·         Developing systems leaders and culture; and

·         Supporting workforce wellbeing, addressing workload and supporting inclusion to support retention of the workforce.

The Joint Board was advised that in Kent and Medway circa. 83,800 FTE individuals were employed in over 350 careers across health and social care organisations. In Kent and Medway, the workforce supply had decreased for most workforce groups and was behind the national average. However, it was noted that work had already been undertaken to address recruitment and retention. Some examples included, launching the ‘Take a Different View’ website to attract perspective employees, upskilling the workforce in the community to maximise the workforce supply, implementation of the Esther Model and implementation of specific retention programmes such as the First Five, Last Five programmes.

The Joint Board’s attention was drawn to key workforce actions in 2019/20 across the Local Care, Primary Care, Stroke, Mental Health, Cancer and Prevention workstreams. It was explained that the Plan was accompanied by a draft detailed implementation plan and delivery dashboard that would be agreed and monitored through the Workforce Board.

The Plan was agreed by the STP Programme Board having been considered by the Workforce Board and the Clinical and Professional Board. It was added that the STP Programme Board emphasised the importance of including performance indicators to monitor progress in implementation.

Members raised a number of points and questions, including:

Promotion of Kent and Medway - In recognition of the steps taken so far to support recruitment and retention, Members stressed the importance of positivity in promoting Kent and Medway as a great place to live, learn and work. It was considered that Kent and Medway was also a great place to enjoy and this aspect should also be promoted.

Workforce growth - Referring to examples of workforce growth set out on page 81 of the agenda, a Member expressed concern that nationally there had been growth in the workforce of a number of staffing groups but a decline locally. For example, nationally, the number of Mental Health Therapists had increased by 83% from 2015 to 2017 but in Kent and Medway growth declined by 47%. He recognised, however, that there were a number of actions in place to support recruitment and retention.

London effect - In response to a question regarding retaining professionals who had completed their training in Kent and Medway, it was considered that  traditionally each locality had focussed on what an organisation could offer rather than the system. The more the local system could work together on the attraction offer, the greater the pull to relocate and remain in Kent and Medway would be. Other actions considered important were: targeting specific points of attraction to the relevant cohort of perspective employees i.e. millennials, individuals nearing retirement etc., improving the accommodation offer, including key worker housing, promoting Multi-Disciplinary Team working and enabling cross organisational development.

Schools and education - Members expressed support for undertaking further work with the local education sector to encourage young people to pursue careers in health and social care. However, concern was expressed regarding the shortage of science teachers to support young people in accessing these careers. It was considered that over time the medical school could be a catalyst for transformation in Kent and Medway and provide opportunities to access a range of careers on offer in the health service. It was noted that the Dean of the Medical School had visited a number of local schools to reaffirm the opportunities available.

It was noted that there was an aspiration to widen participation and encourage young people from the locality to join the Medical School. It was suggested that this might reverse the trend of individuals training in Kent and Medway and then locating elsewhere. There was an aspiration to develop satellite sites which would further enhance opportunities to learn and encourage retention.

It was added that Medway Council had recently launched its Skills Strategy. A key element of the Strategy was a skills mapping exercise and supporting further work with education partners. A Member offered his support in sharing information in this regard.

Decision:

The Kent and Medway Joint Health and Wellbeing Board received and supported the STP Workforce Transformation Plan.