Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee
Committee Inquiry into Health and Social Care Workforce Planning - Evidence from Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) Cymru
Background
1. The Association of Directors of Social Services in Wales (ADSS Cymru) is Social Care’s Professional Leadership Association in Wales.
2. In 2007 the Association achieved an important milestone in its development by becoming independent following its separation from its previous parent body - ADSS UK.
3. While ADSS Cymru is a new entity, when a branch of ADSS UK the Association enjoyed a long history of working positively with Government and partner Agencies in Wales at all levels. It has been particularly active in promoting and tackling workforce issues in Wales.
4. Membership of the new Association has been expanded to include all Directors of Social Services and Heads of Services in Local Authorities in Children’s, Adults and Business Services in Wales. Although still numbering less than 100 people, they do comprise all the Senior Managers of Local Authority Social Services in Wales.
5. ADSS Cymru also supports All Wales networks of Local Authority Officers working in Social Care in such diverse areas as Direct Payments, Contracts and Commissioning, Complaints etc
6. Members of the Association have been, and continue to be, heavily involved with WAG in contributing to, and taking forward, the work of the 10 year Strategy for Social Services in Wales - "Fulfilled Lives, Supportive Communities”.
7. In particular, ADSS Cymru has signalled the priority to be given to this area of work by establishing a Workforce Policy Group led by a Director of Social Services to support the delivery of the Strategy.
Social Services in Wales
8. Social Services in Wales is big business. It’s also a very diverse and complex business essentially engaged in protecting the vulnerable and promoting independence.
9. The Chief Inspector of Care and Social Services in his written submission to the Committee gave a comprehensive summary of the range and volume of Social Services activities and the scale of economic impact it makes on the economy of Wales.
10. This submission doesn’t intend to cover the same ground as his evidence is already on record but there a few numbers that are significant and worthy of brief reflection.
11. Social Services expenditure is now of the order of over £1 billion, it employs over 70,000 people and meets the needs of over 150,000 people.
12. Very significantly for purposes of workforce planning is that most of the direct provision, indeed most of the employment, in the sector is provided by the private and voluntary sector.
13. Local Authorities commission most of it, but provide comparatively little of it. This is important when considering the questions the Committee has within its brief, particularly in relation to data collection.
14. It is also important in relation to consideration the Committee may give to the notion of greater centralisation of workforce planning. Social Services is not a National Social Service unlike the National Health Service.
15. There are a combination of 22 Local Authorities but over 1,000 private and 8,000 voluntary & community organisations involved in the employment and deployment of those 70,000 employees. Engagement has to be essentially local, although the argument will be forwarded later that improved co-ordination needs to take place on a regional basis.
16. This not to deny the importance of an All Wales perspective on the issues. There is a clear role for national standards, national data collection and national consideration of locally generated trends and issues.
17. The challenge for Local Authorities is to ensure it is doing everything it can to ensure its commissioning activity is ensuring that all stakeholders in the business understand industry intentions, have confidence in its predictions and are willing to engage in the planning and delivery of the outcomes whichever part of the system they come from i.e. Government, Health service, Higher Education Institutions, service providers, service users etc.
18. Directors of Social Services within each Local Authority have unique responsibilities for ensuring that one sector, one workforce is a reality not just a mantra. Within "Fulfilled Lives, Supportive Communities”
one of the core responsibilities of each Director of Social Services covering children’s and adult services is social service workforce planning, training and professional development.
Workforce Information collection
19. There is an abundance of data, information, research, guidance and activity regarding workforce information in Social Care.
20. Most significant of the data collection methods for Local Authorities is the WAG - Annual Staffing Return (STF’s) which is collated by the Data Unit Wales, based on submissions by Local Authorities. It contains information on the numbers of staff of social services departments at 31st March each year. The information includes, by staff category and Local Authority: -
The numbers of full time and part time staff;
The number of whole time equivalent (WTE) staff;
The numbers of staff with qualifications; and
The numbers of Welsh speaking staff;
21. Data is collected by CSSIW from service providers with regard to service registration and inspection.
22. The Care Council collects individual information from employees seeking registration and is beginning to build a very valuable database of information regarding the registered workforce
23. Local Authorities also collect information from local service providers to assist in the production of Social Care Workforce Development (SCDWP) plans particularly in relation to qualification achievement in the independent sector. Local Authorities can also be collecting workforce data through contract compliance arrangements.
24. The collection of the data is specific to the needs of the particular system or information collector. This provides useful information but it can result in duplication and it lacks coherent co-ordination. It is also weak in relation to providing some of the information which workforce planners at local or national level need in relation to more dynamic statistics like vacancy levels, turnover and pay rates.
25. Wales needs a more systematic holistic data collection system which meets the needs of stakeholders and improves our overall capacity to plan. In England they are developing an on line National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) for the Social Care industry which appears to address some of the current weaknesses.
26. WAG needs to assess the requirement in Wales for a Welsh National Minimum Data Set.
Research, Knowledge and Guidance
27. Wales is not starting from a blank piece of paper. There has been much work in establishing building blocks within the industry to build on.
28. There have been some very useful pieces of research produced by a range of Agencies in the recent past which the Committee need to be aware of.
29. In particular the Care Council for Wales -
"The Social Care Workforce in Wales Themes and Trends” published in December 2006 draws out the main themes and trends about social care and its workforce in Wales. It brings together information from a wide range of sources and identifies some of the progress made and the challenges still facing the sector
30. Some other pieces of work -
"The Social Care Workforce in Wales Themes and Trends” refers to include: -
"Scoping and Mapping of the Early Years and Children’s Workforce in Wales” a research project commissioned by the Care Council for Wales
"Working Futures” presents future employment predictions by employment status - full time, part time and self employed status
"The ELWa Learning and Skills Assessment” was produced from a range of published data and intelligence obtained from partners, providers and Sector Skills Councils
Care Council for Wales
-
"The Skills Foresight Plan for Social Care Sector in Wales” laid out the shape and profile of the workforce as well as the development and up skilling needs in 2003. It contains information about the estimated numbers and predicted skills, knowledge and qualification needs across the whole sector of the workforce.
31. ADSS Cymru itself published an important piece of research regarding the social work profession in August 2005 "Social Work in Wales: A Profession to Value” which was an ADSS led multi-agency report which examined the issues affecting the recruitment and retention of Social Workers in Wales. This report built upon the "Skills Foresight Plan” which was published in 2003.
32. Wales has also benefited over the years from useful guidance and workforce planning tools from a variety of sources. Clearly these are important sources of information for any successful workforce planning system. These include:-
"
The Guidance on Planning for Social Services” produced by the Social Services Inspectorate of the National Assembly for Wales in 2000, including the Workforce Information Template"Social Care Workforce in Wales - Definitions and Challenges” and the "Report of the Task and Finish Group on Workforce Issues in Social Care”, National Assembly for Wales 2001
"Planning for Caring” - The Welsh Assembly Government’s guidance on HR Planning which highlighted the importance of easily accessible, up to date and accurate workforce information at a local level
"Planning for Training and Staff Development across the social care sector
”,
guidance to help Welsh local authorities and their partners draw up effective training and staff development arrangements for the social care sector in the area."
The Review of Health and Social Care in Wales”
which made particular reference to the delivery of social care services through closer working partnerships of health and social care services"
Investing in the Future”
, the Welsh Assembly Government guidance on the development and implementation of social work trainee schemes"
Making Connections and Delivering the Connections”
: 5 year action plan for delivering Better Services for Wales that make specific reference to strategic approach to human resource planning"
Sharing the Learning”
which identified the emerging themes and issues in social care workforce planning"
The Review of Flexible Local Workforce Arrangements across Health and Social Services in Wales”
undertaken by Social Services Inspectorate Wales which identified approaches to the development of new joint roles"Care Standards Inspectorate for Wales, Annual Report” a comprehensive overview of the quality of social care and early years services in Wales including comments on workforce development
The SCIE (Social Care Institute for Excellence) website is also a rich source of material on workforce planning (www.scie.org.uk)
33. Wales needs to continue to build on its body of knowledge and further develop research expertise in Social Care workforce planning, particularly if Wales are to choose to invest in an NMDS model for the industry.
Social Care in Partnership
34. Wales has been gradually establishing a very comprehensive and quite sophisticated foundation for partnership in Social Care across the public, private and voluntary sector workforce.
35. Each Local Authority area has developed a Social Care Workforce Development Partnership (SCDWP) consisting of organisations from all parts of the Social Care workforce coming together to improve local co-ordination of training efforts to meet qualification targets and encourage access to training. Very helpful funding is provided for the Social Care Workforce Development partnerships from WAG to create innovation and deliver improvements.
36. The aim of each Partnership is to put in place a plan to ensure that all directly managed and commissioned services in the local authority area are delivered by staff with the qualifications, skills and knowledge for the work they do. The elements addressed are:
Establishing a baseline of information
Future forecasting
Identifying gaps and shortfalls
Identifying arrangements and plans that support the one sector one workforce approach to training and development
Funding arrangements and opportunities
Developing learning opportunities, teams and organisations
Monitoring and evaluation
Developing a five year strategic direction and plan
37. These Partnerships are real evidence at a local level of all parts of the Social Care Sector coming together to address common problems.
38. The Chief Inspector in his submission to this Committee made reference to the excellent achievements of the SCDWP Partnerships - 4,125 qualifications gained last year; 99,900 attendances at SCDWP events; 27% of attendance by non Local Authority employees. This is very encouraging.
39. Each SCDWP is required to submit an Annual Plan to WAG to justify grant allocation and provide evidence of achievement of targets and objectives.
40. To further strengthen the potential of SCWDP partnership working, Local Authorities need to ensure Commissioners of services are integrated within the SCDWP planning processes.
41. Equally, Local Health Boards and Local Authorities need to ensure SCDWP partners are closely engaged with the development of workforce strategies flowing from the development and revision of Health, Social Care & Wellbeing Strategy for Adult Services and the Single Plan for Children and Young People in Children’s Services.
42. It is a requirement of the Children’s Single Plan to have a Workforce Strategy. There should be a similar requirement in the Health, Social Care & Wellbeing Strategy.
43. At a Regional level much very good work has been done to establish strong relationships between various sectors in the Regional Social Care world.
44. The Care Council provides very helpful, but modest, resources to each Regional Social Care in Partnership (SCiP) to allow some capacity to co-ordinate efforts within each Regional Partnership.
45. In 3 of the 4 Partnerships, leadership is provided by Directors of Social Services, the fourth is very successfully chaired by a member of a voluntary sector organisation.
46. The Regional Partnerships provide a real mechanism for information exchange and opportunity to for members to engage on issues live within the industry. For some providers working across many Local Authorities, understanding trends and industry patterns at a Regional level is vital to their business planning. Commitment to 1 Regional rather than 6 local events is also more efficient use of their time.
47. The Partnerships have also provided a really important role in brokering agreements between Higher Education Institutions and Social Services Departments regarding numbers of social work placements and the planning and implementation of the new Social Work degree. These arrangements will be also important in establishing new Post Qualification arrangements for social workers in the future.
48. There is clear potential for such a model to be developed for the better planning of the rest of the Social Care industry. A more complex problem but a problem that will only be resolved in partnership, in collaboration and from a well organised evidence base.
49. The Regional Partnerships are well positioned to benefit from outcomes of the "Making the Connections”
Agenda and if strengthened could be a very important link with other regional collaborations.
50. The links between local SCDWPs and SCiPs need to be more formally strengthened in the workforce planning process. There is a need to review capacity in the existing SCIP arrangements and to test whether models operating in formalising arrangements between Higher Education Institutions and Local Authorities can be replicated for the benefit of the wider Social Care Workforce.
Joint Working between Health & Social Care
51. There are opportunities with local Health and Social Care communities to address workforce planning issues within the 2 key Service Planning Strategies: -
Health, Social Care & Wellbeing Strategy
Children’s and Young People’s Single Plan
52. As these documents represent 3 and 5 year time-scales, opportunity does exist for consideration of fundamental change of service configuration and subsequent workforce redesign. Workforce planning must be a critical component of each of these Strategy documents.
53. New ways of working and new technologies are also beginning to raise questions for staff interested in these new occupations e.g. Hybrid Health & Social Workers, Reablement assistants, Telecarer assistants etc.
54. Health & Social Care needs to be able to offer an unambiguous qualification framework that allows new types of Health & Social Care employees a clear career pathway for progress.
Recommendations
55. WAG needs to assess the requirement in Wales for a Welsh National Minimum Data Set.
56. Wales needs to continue to build on its body of knowledge and further develop research expertise in Social Care Workforce planning, particularly if Wales are to choose to invest in an NMDS model for the industry.
57. It is a requirement of the Children’s Single Plan to have a Workforce Strategy. There should be a similar requirement in the Health, Social Care & Wellbeing Strategy.
58. The links between local SCDWPs and SCiPs need to be more formally strengthened in the workforce planning process. There is a need to review capacity in the existing SCIP arrangements and to test whether models operating in formalising arrangements between Higher Education Institutions and Local Authorities can be replicated for the benefit of the wider Social Care Workforce
59. Health & Social Care needs to be able to offer an unambiguous qualification framework that allows new types of Health & Social Care employees a clear career pathway for progress.
