Key representatives from Plymouth’s health and social care sector have met for the first time to share system-wide, collective workforce strategies across University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, Livewell Southwest and adult social care.
The event hosted by Caring Plymouth, the city’s sector skills partnership for health and social care, brought together a range of stakeholders including adult social care providers, Plymouth City Council’s Commissioners, senior representatives from the NHS and Livewell Southwest, training providers including further and higher education, and representatives from Department for Work and Pensions.
Cllr Councillor Mary Aspinall, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, said: “We now have shared understanding about the demands for this critical workforce so that we can better prioritise the coordinated actions that we need to take to deliver a sustainable, system-wide skilled workforce for the future. We know that this sector has the highest overall demand for recruitment in Plymouth, with approximately 350 unique job vacancies a month with the highest demands for care workers and home carers as well as nurses, and there is also a significant need for managerial and administrative roles.”
Speaking at the event, Darryn Allcorn, Chief Nurse & Director of Integrated Professions at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, said: “It is exceptionally positive that we can work collaboratively across the city in order to understand our collective workforce demands and challenges. There is so much more to our workforce than the traditional caring roles associated with health and social care. Through working together, we can ensure our local communities not only have employment opportunities but supported to develop lifelong careers.”
Sharing their workforce strategy priorities, Nicky Varker, Assistant Director of Workforce at Livewell Southwest, said: “We share in the ambition to deliver the highest-quality health and care services to our population and to do this, we want to make sure Plymouth is the destination of choice for roles in the sector. This means creating attractive packages that bring the best people into the city and support them to unlock their potential. We’ve worked hard to open doors in recent years with new pathways into nursing that are helping people to achieve aspirations they had started to close a door on. The challenge is to spread this into our wider workforce to create clear development pathways to help people enter and grow within Livewell.”
The event also marked the launch of the city’s first dedicated Skills and Training Directory for the Health and Social Care sector which provides access and improved information, advice and guidance for people new to the sector as well as helping the existing workforce with career progression.
For further information email caringplymouth@plymouth.gov.uk
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