Yorkshire and Humber: A regional approach to implementing the shared workforce priorities

In 2020, ADASS, LGA and Skills for Care agreed five national shared workforce priorities:

1. Strategic workforce planning
2. Growing and developing the workforce to meet future demand
3. Enhancing the use of technology
4. Supporting wellbeing and positive mental health
5. Building and enhancing social justice, equality, diversity and inclusion in the workforce.

The aim in agreeing the priorities was to support councils and regions in making more significant progress in improvement across these priority areas. It was also recognised in 2020, that in the absence of a national workforce strategy, the shared workforce priorities provided a framework for councils and regions to consider in identifying their own local priorities.

The Yorkshire and Humber ADASS region is composed of the counties of West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and parts of Lincolnshire. It shares borders with North-East and North-West England and the East Midlands. It’s a mix of rural and coastal towns and villages and post-industrial centres, established university cities and revitalized cities, supporting new and emerging industries. Its population is diverse and different across the region.

Yorkshire and Humber, like many other regions, identify their workforce as their biggest asset, but also an area of significant challenge. Keeping pace with a pandemic, and with rapid demographic, political, economic and technological changes, requires a sharpened focus on doing the right thinks to allow the workforce to thrive. Yorkshire and Humber found that one of the challenges that councils and partners faced in developing workforce plans was prioritising areas for improvement that would help them to develop a sustainable workforce for the future.

The regional workforce network, working collectively with regional Skills for Care colleagues, has put the national shared workforce priorities at the heart of their regional approach. Their decision to do this stemmed from the co-development of the priorities with people and organisations working in social care across all ADASS regions. The regional team felt that the wide ranging discussion and agreement on the shared workforce priorities, has given the Yorkshire and Humber network a confident evidence base to build from, enabling conversations which respect the diversity and breadth of the workforce, whilst creating unity on common challenges and opportunities.

Following consultation across the region, a sixth priority around leadership was added, to highlight the importance of supportive and enabling leadership across all parts of social care and at all levels.

At the start of last year, the network took the decision to structure their regional workforce programme around the shared workforce priorities. Each monthly meeting spotlights one of the priorities, sharing national resources, guidance and research in the area, and having two or three local authorities share a piece of work they are doing under that priority. Time is left at the end of the session for discussion about what members have learned from each other and what they can do to put some of the ideas around that priority into practice.

The NHS Futures website is currently being used to share work people are doing on the priorities. We know that different workforce challenges are faced at different times in different places. Keeping a library of best practice means that people can revisit information shared at the right time for them. Each priority has its own page and over time the hope is that this becomes a repository of useful documents and links, which network members can utilize to suit their local strategic activity. Not only is there felt to be a collective agreement on a set of regional priorities, there is also a better understanding of what everyone is doing to contribute to their delivery.

Although consideration was given to a regional workforce action plan, it became quite quickly apparent that whilst priorities are consistent, action needs to be planned according to the context of place. Using the learning from the spotlight sessions, the network’s ambition is to compile a flipbook which summarises a shared strategic vision in the region for each of the six priorities, and signposts to the spotlighted best practice examples and resources.

The shared workforce priorities have offered a simple framework for a knotty conversation. They have allowed Yorkshire and Humber to collectively ‘get going’ and get practical about the transformational activity required.

The monthly spotlight sessions showcasing practice, followed up by action planning around each priority has shifted the work from sharing practice to action learning. Showcasing good practice is helping to re-balance the narrative on workforce improvement and recognize the creative approaches that are being developed in the region to address workforce challenges.

At a national level, the refresh of the national shared workforce priorities in 2023 resulted in the addition of leadership as a new priority, alongside the existing five priorities. Over 500 people nationally were engaged in the refresh, including people with lived experience as well as partner organisations. This feedback from the sector is feeding into the development of a new national workforce strategy for adult social care being led by Skills for Care.

Colleagues from Yorkshire and Humber region contributed to the refresh of the national shared workforce priorities and supported the addition of leadership as a sixth priority, having pre-empted this by adding leadership to the regional priorities the year before.

At a regional level, it is hoped that the work to create a repository of good practice and resources, and to create an accessible booklet describing the collective ambitions, will sustain the commitment to the six priorities. The work already completed has given the network a renewed momentum and strengthened existing relationships, so that people can, and are, making direct connections and seeking support from one another.

Seeking collaborative agreement on the shared priorities was felt to make more sense to the region than seeking to develop a regional workforce strategy. People felt that the priorities gave people a focused but flexible framework for workforce improvement that they could tailor to their own regional context and requirements.

The monthly spotlight sessions focusing on a particular priority gives people an opportunity to share, learn and explore what more they can do locally to support and develop the adult social care workforce.

There are real wins in bringing together regional changemakers. Giving people a space to share, learn and reflect on common challenges and solutions is important, as is ensuring they have permission and motivation to make an impact back at ‘place’. This includes opening the doors to key partners who want to be part of your coalition of the willing.

Abby Hands, Programme Director, ADASS Yorkshire and Humber

Email: [email protected]