Posted on Monday 16th January 2023
Julia Jessel
Partners across Staffordshire are working together to reshape social care in the county to bring greater benefits for staff and the people they support.
The new Staffordshire Social Care Workforce Strategy sets out ambitions to work with staff, employers and families to help attract and retain staff, and promote the work being done to protect the most vulnerable in our communities from the youngest to the frail and the elderly.
Staffordshire County Council has been working with partners across the public, private and voluntary sectors to look at how they can work together to turn around the recruitment challenges, help the sector flourish and help the workforce feel more valued.
Julia Jessel, the council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Care, said:
People working across Staffordshire in both children and adults social care, do an amazing job protecting and supporting the most vulnerable people in the county and we are committed to working hard not only to attract the best staff, but to keep the best staff.
All the partners recognise that nationally we have seen unprecedented challenges in recruitment and our joint mission is to develop a more resilient care sector that enables more effective recruitment and retention of care staff.
In developing this new strategy, we have all worked together, including the council, the NHS and the independent sector and staff themselves, to look at what matters most to them and how all employers can do their very best to recruit, retain and develop their own workforce.
While staff said of course that factors such as pay and benefits were important they also wanted the opportunity to progress in their career and that is why more training and development opportunities are key to our joint ambitions.”
The strategy sets out how over the next two years, partners will take a number of steps including:
• Improving the positive recognition of social care as a valued career
• Implementing a partnership approach to learning and development
• Developing an improved employment journey for all staff, from apprentices, to people returning to employment, to long standing employees
• Making better use of technology
• Sharing recruitment best practice
The draft strategy will be discussed and recommended for approval by Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet on January 18. A final strategy will be published in March 2023.