So what’s the plan?

Recruitment is not just a problem for social care organisations,
as higher education institutions are finding. They have had
difficulty attracting quality teaching staff and there are also
concerns about how up-to-date some staff are on policy and
practice. Added to this is a worrying demographic picture which
indicates that a high proportion of the teaching staff are older
than 50. All of which suggests an increasing need for quality
education in social care.

To address these concerns, the Strategic Learning and Research
Advisory Group (StLaR), chaired jointly by the permanent
secretaries of the Department of Health and Department for
Education and Skills, established a project team to develop a human
resources plan in health and social care. In December 2003, the
team produced an account of the needs, which included:

• Greater awareness of career opportunities in education and
  research.
• Improved career pathways with greater flexibility and reward
  mechanisms which reflect and protect the philosophy of high-quality
  teaching, scholarly activity and the sustainability of the
  researcher workforce.
• Improved workforce intelligence to consider issues such as
  gender and age profiles and ethnic diversity.
• Improved strategic partnerships between service organisations
  and the education sector.

  In 2004 the project team consulted through focus groups,
  stakeholder events and a web-based questionnaire. In November it
  submitted its final report to the DH and DfES including its 15
  recommendations and costed proposals for implementing the plan.
  These are now being discussed within the two departments, with
  announcements expected soon.

  The project team’s vision was “to provide a human resources plan to
  develop and sustain a world-class workforce of educators and
  researchers for the health, social care and education economies
  thus contributing to health improvement, excellent patient/service
  user care and safety through education and research”.

  The recommendations were grouped into three themes: strategic
  drivers and government/national policy; employment practices and
  changes of culture; data gathering and associated studies to be
  commissioned.

  Within the first theme, one recommendation was to immediately
  implement a human resources plan for the educator and researcher
  workforce in health and social care, developed systematically with
  existing HR strategies available for the health, education and
  social care spheres.

  There was also a recommendation that all students on professional
  courses should be taught the basic skills of teaching and research
  awareness for service users’ benefit. And employers should have a
  duty to support education and research which should be evidenced to
  the Commission for Social Care Inspection. The commission has taken
  responsibility for implementing this recommendation. The team also
  wanted a recruitment and awareness campaign aimed at drawing
  practitioners into education and research, driven jointly by DH,
  DfES and social care employers.

  Under the theme of employment practices and changes of culture,
  recommendations included: pay modernisation processes should ensure
  that advanced practitioners can fulfil their obligations towards
  education and research by requiring their employment contracts to
  be explicit about support for teaching and research
  activities.

  Managers should be supported in developing employees’ career
  options as educators and researchers in annual reviews and
  information-gathering exercises. More work is needed on developing
  career pathway exemplars to build on those gathered during the
  consultation. This work will be included in the development of an
  employers’ guide. Conditions of service in other countries most
  likely to prove attractive alternative destinations for our health
  and social care academics should be monitored. Structures and
  systems in this country should be calibrated accordingly.

  On data-gathering, the government should extend the national
  training numbers for academics scheme in medicine and dentistry
  (where there are specifically funding target numbers) to other
  health and social care professions. A labour market intelligence
  system to provide continuous accurate data on the employment and
  disposition of the research and educator workforce for health and
  social care should be developed without delay. And a five-year
  planning survey should be undertaken to determine workforce demand
  for educators and researchers in health and social care.

  An e-consultation between August and September 2004 went to NHS
  trusts, social services departments, higher and further education
  institutions, funding bodies for education and research, trade
  unions, regulatory and professional bodies, voluntary and private
  sector employers and service user groups. Consultees were asked to
  provide organisational responses to the following:

• Appropriateness of the exemplar career pathways.
• National, local and organisational drivers, barriers, critical
  success factors.
• Resources – human and financial.
• Examples of good practice.
• Characteristics of the teaching and research world in
  2010.

  A detailed analysis of the responses is available on the StLaR
  website, including specific responses from social care.

  It is evident from the consultation responses that there is strong
  support for the strategic direction of the HR plan. There is much
  that can be developed at national level working with, for example,
  the Commission for Social Care Inspection to develop education
  standards for social care organisations which reinforce the
  employer responsibilities in the code of conduct. This will assist
  in focusing on the education agenda by placing it within the
  regulatory framework as it is imperative that education through
  teaching and research is recognised and sustained as a core
  activity in social care.

  There is support for improving research/teaching awareness and
  portfolio career development within professional training which can
  be achieved by working with the General Social Care Council. This
  underpins the philosophy that career development and identification
  of potential academics should begin as early as possible. There is
  more work to be done at local level to ensure that national
  strategic drivers are fit for purpose at the point of delivery and
  it is clear from many respondents that they wish to see the project
  team engage further with other initiatives that support clinical
  academic staff in health and social care.

  Some of the costed proposals will need more money but some could be
  met by using some existing funding differently. Proposals include
  the extension of learning resource centres to 2010 – currently they
  are funded until March 2006; developing best practice guidance in
  teaching and research in social care; funding to be used for
  sabbaticals and practice secondments for teaching staff; and
  improving the infrastructure in higher education, further education
  and employment structures.

  Meanwhile, the DH and DfES have set up a joint implementation group
  to look at how to implement the proposals.

  Training & Learning

  The author has provided questions about this article to guide
  discussion in teams. These can be viewed at
  www.communitycare.co.uk/prtl and individuals’ learning from the
  discussion can be registered on a free, password-protected training
  log held on the site. This is a service from Community Care for all
  GSCC-registered professionals.

  Abstract
  
  This article looks at the work of the Strategic Learning and
  Research Advisory Group’s project team and its aim to raise the
  quality and quantity of teaching and research in social care.

  Further information
  The report is not published yet, but it is on the StLaR
  website: www.stlarhr.org.uk

  Contact the author
  eve.hessey@blueyonder.co.uk