National Assembly for Wales
Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee
Committee Inquiry: Health and Social Care Workforce Planning
Call for Evidence
The Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee has agreed to undertake an inquiry into workforce planning for the Health Service and Social Care in Wales and is calling for those with an interest or expertise in this area to submit written evidence.
Questions to consider in preparing evidence
Responses
Background
In healthcare, the inquiry will look at issues concerning the healthcare workforce in Wales such as shortages of GPs in some areas, levels of nursing vacancies filled by bank and agency staff, training places for junior doctors, and the availability of posts for newly qualified Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) e.g. physiotherapists. The apparent ‘swings’ in the numbers of trained health professionals leading to surpluses some years and shortages in others will also be considered.
The Social care sector employs 70,000 people in Wales, with services provided by the public, voluntary and private sectors. An ageing population is likely to increase the demand for care services for the foreseeable future. In the children’s sector concern has been expressed around the shortage of social workers to undertake child protection work. The inquiry will look at recruitment and retention difficulties for social care staff and the impact of Government policies in these areas.
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Terms of Reference
The Committee has agreed the following terms of reference for the inquiry:
"To examine the effectiveness of the current arrangements for workforce planning in the health and social care sectors in Wales and to make recommendations about future arrangements, with reference to:
- The division of responsibility amongst organisations charged with workforce planning and the mechanisms they use;
- The availability and quality of intelligence to inform workforce planning;
- The involvement of all relevant stakeholders in the planning process;
- Changing patterns of demand (including an ageing population) and service provision in the health and social care sectors, (including reconfiguration of services, use of new technology, new public service delivery arrangements);
- Cross border arrangements with the NHS in England;
- Changing professional roles and training programmes;
- Joint working between health and social care agencies;
- The workforce needs of the public, voluntary and private sectors;
- The recruitment of a workforce that reflects the diversity of the Welsh communities, including Welsh speaking staff and those from BME group, and general equality issues with particular reference to the retention of staff;
- Examples of good and innovative practice."
Questions to consider in preparing evidence
- Is workforce planning undertaken by the right agencies and in such a way that takes into account other key factors such as finance, service planning and training capacity? Should it be more or less centralised?
- Is the information available to workforce planners of sufficient quantity and quality to ensure effective planning?
- Is workforce planning undertaken with sufficient regard to future patterns of demand for services?
- Are all stakeholders included in the process e.g. from the statutory, voluntary and private sectors?
- To what extent do the current arrangements support or hinder effective joint working between health and social care and across the statutory, voluntary and private sectors?
- What are the arrangements for work force planning in areas with cross border patterns of service use (e.g. health services in North Wales)?
- To what extent do the current workforce planning arrangements affect the use of agency staff and what is the impact of this on budgets?
- Are the current arrangement addressing the need for Welsh speaking and Black and Minority Ethnic staff?
- To what extent is workforce planning anticipating changing patterns of service commissioning and provision and the changing or blurring of professional roles?
- Does workforce planning take sufficient account of the need for trained and effective managers?
- To what extent have the European Working Time Directive and the increasingly international labour market had an impact on, and been acknowledged in, workforce planning?
