Push for more PAs in the region

JIP’s project to increase the number and quality of personal assistants (PAs) in the region is gathering pace, with draft specifications in place for a PA register and an online market place.

Personalised care – the practice of service users receiving direct payments which they use to buy care services - is leading to increased demand for PAs.

The online market and the register will make it easier for people to book PAs who have been vetted and are registered, directly.

The developments are part of a wider initiative that includes:

• producing legal advice for PAs and employers on employment rights, health and safety, and on the implications for local authorities


• analysis of barriers to direct employment from both the employer and PA’s point of view


• developing a business case for local authorities to invest in PA capacity building measures.

The project summary is available from Paul Johnston, Impact Change Solutions Ltd, email: paul.johnston@impactchange.co.uk, telephone: 07847 318672.

Calling all SMEs

Representatives of the National Skills Academy for Social Care want to meet and talk with employers in small and medium sized businesses and organisations, to find out how to best support their needs.

Set up in October 2009, the academy specialises in helping social care workers improve their skills, and is training some of the estimated future one million care workers needed to care for the ageing population.

The academy works to boost the quality and quantity of qualified workers. It provides up to date advice and information about training courses, funding, and details of trainers.

Contact Debbie Sorkin, email: Debbie.Sorkin@nsasocialcare.co.uk

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Regional recruitment online

Wmjobs is an online recruitment site for people seeking work in the West Midland’s public sector, and for employers advertising jobs.

The site allows applicants to apply to authorities throughout the region, through a single point using one application form.

Job seekers can receive job alerts by email or SMS, and register with a talent pool that is searched by employers on a regular basis.

The site is funded by IEWM. It was set up to promote local government jobs and career opportunities; to improve the image of working for local government; to attract a wider range of candidates, and encourage collaborative working on recruitment and redeployment.

Councils wanting to join the scheme should contact
Karen James, telephone: 0121 245 0188 or
email: recruitmentportal@wmlga.gov.uk .

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IEWM Investing in local people

Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands (IEWM) has invested in a number of initiatives to support the development of local government workers in the region.

IEWM has put £2.3 million into people and leadership development with the purpose of:

• improving leadership at both member and officer level
• increasing awareness and understanding of people and development issues in organisational change and transformational programmes
• establishing ‘core skills development programmes’ for officers and members
• reducing areas of skill shortages
• helping 90% of local authorities achieve the West Midlands Member Development Charter.

For more details contact: Rebecca Davis, Head of Organisational Development,
email: rdavis@westmidlandsiep.gov.uk,
telephone: 0121 678 1045.

In separate schemes IEWM has launched a guide to apprenticeships for public sector employers.

The online toolkit gives advice on effective processes for taking on apprentices and shares best practice in the region.

The guide has been developed in partnership with the National Apprenticeship Service and is sponsored by the IDeA.

Read more

Contact Katrina McGuigan, email: kmcguigan@westmidlandsiep.gov.uk,
telephone: 0121 678 1073.

IEWM has also funded a regional coaching pool partnership formed by local authorities in the region. Trained coaches are deployed throughout the West Midlands to coach colleagues in other councils in the partnership.
The aim is to:

• give local authorities access to quality and free of charge coaching for employees
• enhance a culture of learning
• raise awareness of coaching skills
• share learning from the partnership with colleagues regionally and nationally.

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Contact Samantha Baker, email: sbaker@westmidlandsiep.gov.uk, telephone: 0121 245 0156

Workforce planning takes shape

JIP’s workforce planning project has identified its priorities for the rest of the year, to ensure the region’s adult social care workforce is geared up to deliver transformation of adult social care.

Regional priorities reflect those at a national level, namely:

• leadership


• recruitment and retention


• workforce remodelling


• workforce development


• joint and integrated working


• regulation

The partnership is seeking information from local authorities about their key concerns, identifying gaps in the regional workforce, ensuring coherent planning, promoting efficient use of resources and the effective delivery of workforce activity across health and social care.

Contact brian.walsh@coventry.gov.uk

Building a bigger and better workforce

Moves are under way to increase the number of apprenticeships in adult social care and to employ thousands more people in the sector, as part of an England wide strategy to develop a high quality workforce to deliver personalised care and build a national care service.

The Adult Social Care Workforce Strategy aims to boost the status of social care so the sector can attract and retain the brightest and best workers.

Initiatives include:

• increasing the number of apprenticeships by around 1,300
• CareFirst, a scheme to get 50,000 long term unemployed people working in social care. Employers will receive a subsidy of £1,500 to take on trainees aged between 18 and 24
• targeting groups that have not traditionally taken up careers in social care
• establishing a new national management trainee scheme to encourage graduates and top quality executives to move into the sector
• a new voluntary registration scheme for home care workers from April 2010 to help safeguard people who use services and improve quality
• developing more social care awards to raise the status of working in the sector, and to recognise the contributions made by individuals already working in social care
• more support for newly qualified social workers in their first year.

The strategy provides a framework for local authorities with responsibility for transforming services to develop the workforce to the scale and standards needed to meet the requirements of transforming adult social care.

Six themes underpin the strategy, they are:

• leadership
• recruitment, retention and career pathways
• workforce remodelling and commissioning
• workforce development
• joint and integrated working
• regulation

Approximately 1.5 million people work in adult social care in a variety of roles, with over two thirds in the private and third sectors.
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JIP e-bulletin No 12 May 2010

Dear Colleague,

Since confirmation of plans earlier this year to set up a national care service, the focus on building a workforce fit to deliver transformation of adult social care has intensified.

Our growing ageing population has led to an increase in demand for support and care services; this in turn has led to extensive examination of how we meet the demand and deal with the consequences.

The response – transforming social care – brings together a number of issues and expectations, specifically: finding ways to provide more, better and innovative services; making available resources stretch further; and personalising care, giving service users greater choice and control.

None of this can be achieved if we, the care service practitioners and providers, don’t change the way we do things.

As the lead director for developing the social care workforce in the West Midlands, I am delighted to see a number of schemes set up to help reshape the social care workforce, and help staff in the region adapt to change.

The training and social care standards organisation, Skills for Care, has commissioned detailed analysis of the National Minimum Dataset for Social Care – an important document that will help councils plan their workforces for the future. We feature this and other Skills for Care activities in this month’s bulletin, along with other initiatives in the region.



Brian Walsh,
JIP Steering Group
DASS Workforce Lead
Director of Community Services in Coventry