Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Social Care Academy

About

• Region: West Midlands
• Type of locality: Rural
• Year of launch: 2024
• Academy type: Social care academy
• Funding model: Staffordshire County Council, Accelerated Reform Fund and International Climate FunD
• Key features: 'New to care' focus

Staffordshire is a predominantly rural area in the West Midlands, with a population of 876,100. There are an estimated 24,500 health and social care jobs in Staffordshire, of which 2,100 are vacant posts. In 2022/23, the turnover rate in Staffordshire’s health and social care sector was 30.8 per cent. For Stoke-on-Trent, there were 8,900 total posts in the sector with 700 vacant posts, and a staff turnover rate of 36.7 per cent.

The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Social Care Academy was launched as part of a broader workforce development and retention strategy for the region. The overall aim of the Academy is to work with providers to deliver adult social care placements and offer training and adult learning opportunities with a ‘new to care’ focus, for example, by recruiting and training those who have never worked in care before.

The Academy plans to identify gaps in provision and deliver services that are not already being offered by other local authority departments or partner organisations. The aim is to add value and offer a resource-efficient service that addresses previously unmet training and recruitment needs. This includes focusing on people who are being made redundant or are at risk of redundancy, as well as targeting areas of social deprivation to reach underrepresented groups.

The Academy evolved from a local workforce strategy which was developed in April 2022. Initially, the activities that formed part of this strategy did not have a common infrastructure. The development of the Academy gave the activities a ‘home’. It will make processes more streamlined and visible, and provide more opportunities for sharing learning and knowledge.

Most of the region’s adult social care workforce is employed by the independent care sector and the Academy has identified a need to provide it with additional support. The aim is to achieve a greater level of standardisation across the adult social care workforce by putting in place a one-stop shop offering recruitment, training and support services for the region’s social care sector.

The Academy sits within the Health and Care Directorate of the Care Commissioning department at Staffordshire County Council. The Academy has a Strategic Lead and a full time Care Marketing Development Officer on a fixed-term, two-year contract. They work closely with the wider Care Market Development Team, which provides support with day-to-day operations. The team will design training plans, commission training and support providers with their training needs.

The Academy has also been able to draw on existing resources that were allocated to the implementation of the wider workforce strategy, for example, communication and digital engagement resources.

There is a steering group which consists of:

• Staffordshire County Council
• Stoke-on-Trent City Council
• Local colleges and universities
• Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System (ICS)
• West Midlands Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS)
• Care providers or employers
• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
• Staffordshire Partnership for Employment and Skills.

The Academy has undertaken various co-development and consultation activities during the implementation phase that have involved the steering group. For instance, the business case for the Academy was shared with steering group members, and representatives from local colleges provided feedback on job specifications. In addition, a series of ‘Task and Finish’ exercises were undertaken, including demonstrations on how to use the Academy’s learning and management system. This gave providers an insight into the end user experience.

The Academy currently has two-year funding through the Market Sustainability Improvement Fund and has also received grants from the Accelerated Reform Fund and the Investing in Communities Fund (ICF). Other possible funding sources are being explored. These include the Local Skills Improvement Fund, the Big Lottery Fund and the Adult Education Budget.

Developing a sustainable funding model and ensuring that temporary roles can be extended beyond the current two-year period is seen as key to the Academy’s longer-term impact.

The Academy is currently in the early stages of implementation with the launch of the first phase in April 2024. In this phase, there is a strong emphasis on providing training to the current workforce. The Academy is aware that local job centres run multiple sector-based ‘work academies’ but has found that these are not necessarily effective in solving recruitment and retention issues in adult social care. Phase 1 will deliver a one-stop shop with information, guidance and online resources highlighting training opportunities in the sector. The latter half of Phase 1 will also focus on recruitment and retention.

Phase 2 will have a ‘new to care’ focus. This will be centred around a bespoke delivery element which will be evidenced by local data and intelligence to map what is needed for each area.

The Academy has reported several success factors leading up to the early stages of implementation, including:

• soft market testing – ongoing conversations with providers in the steering group to review each stage of the implementation process and ensure the elements that were being introduced were suitable and fit for purpose
• good partnership working – co-production activities with providers is improving and strengthening direct engagement with those with lived experience. The aim is for people with lived experience to deliver training around what good care and support looks like, for example, Oliver McGowan training
• observing and scoping of other academy delivery models and replicating suitable elements – for example, some placement models were based on examples from other sectors, such as construction
• looking at how care is delivered internationally – and what the Academy could apply during its own implementation
• the social care workforce strategy for Staffordshire provided the springboard for the Academy and the Academy will be “critical to delivering this strategy”
• strong links into the strategic priorities have supported and facilitated senior buy-in and access to funding for the Academy and allowed different partners to come together based on a shared understanding of the sector’s priorities

We have met with leads from the Fylde Coast Health and Social Academy to replicate elements of their model.”

• use of the Maturity Matrix to track progress and impact – the Academy are currently at the ‘strategic’ level but hope to move into ‘integrated’ once the Academy launches (the long-term aim is to be in the ‘disruptive’ category once the partnership has matured and become formalised under a common brand)
• there is also a strong focus on avoiding duplication and developing services in areas where there are gaps in provision or training.

Initially, the Academy was focused on the Staffordshire area, with Stoke-on-Trent becoming involved at a later stage. As such, they faced some challenges associated with the time they had available to determine the specifics of Stoke-on-Trent’s involvement.

There were also some initial challenges when it came to communicating the scope and possibilities of the Academy and achieving buy-in from stakeholders. The importance of communicating early in the process, especially when it comes to stakeholders who are not familiar with the Academy’s work, quickly became evident. This includes providing clear explanations on what the Academy’s scope is.

If we were to do this again, we would ensure that the partners are involved from the outset. It’s fundamental to ensure everyone understands the scope and the requirements and enables much better co-production and collaboration.”

Not having a dedicated resource to focus on building the Academy was also a challenge. Had a dedicated resource been made available, the Academy believes they would have made faster progress. The challenge around securing a full-time resource is linked to the wider challenges that academies face around securing sustainable funding.

The Academy used the care and health career academy toolkit during the design stage to plan their monitoring and evaluation activities to ensure impact, and found it to be “very helpful”.

The Academy plans to monitor and evaluate impact by gathering the following data:

• course participation ratings and feedback
• staff recruitment – number of staff who have obtained a care certificate and number of individuals who have secured paid employment
• organisational survey data – gathering feedback from organisations via a self-evaluation tool to better understand their engagement and whether they are able to access learning and development opportunities.

The Academy is also planning to increase the number of apprenticeships, which they suggested could then feature as a metric to measure impact.

Website:Valuing Social Care in Staffordshire

Contact:[email protected]