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How the new ‘Workforce strategy for adult social care’ will help social care providers keep the right people

As part of our #KeepTheRightPeople campaign, we hear from Kirstie Jones, Chief People Officer at Salutem Care and Education, on how the new ‘Workforce strategy for adult social care’ will support employers to retain their staff.

The upcoming July launch of the new ‘Workforce strategy for adult social care’ is an exciting prospect for social care providers. It promises to set out a clear and unified plan with recommendations to move the sector forward and be accompanied by a variety of useful resources.

Amongst these resources will be information on how to retain staff. We can see from the data that adult social care suffers from a ‘leaky bucket’ – providers continue to recruit new staff while potentially losing existing team members almost as quickly. The new workforce strategy aims to put forward a collaborative, coherent and aligned approach to retaining staff by addressing the crucial retention factors.

My own involvement in the development of the workforce strategy has been within theleadership and management expert working group. I believe this is one of the most important factors when it comes to retention. Without quality leadership, care organisations will always struggle to make their teams feel secure, happy and excited about their future.

Registered managers and leaders across all disciplines within the sector play a huge role in influencing culture and shaping the careers of their colleagues. I believe that by setting out recommendations to support our leaders to develop their practice and careers, the workforce strategy will be instrumental in raising the standard of leadership. In turn, this will directly support retention efforts by providing clear and agreed standards of best practice for providers.

Investing in your staff is an important part of retaining them. Without career progression and development opportunities, most organisations will fail to inspire much hope for the future within their teams, which can cause them to leave. The new workforce strategy will help to address this by supporting social care providers to structure their staff’s career progression and training opportunities.

Another important part of the workforce strategy is the emphasis on supporting the mental and physical health of social care workers, which is particularly significant given the pressures placed on the sector over the last few years. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how challenging social care provision can become, with burnout and mental health difficulties becoming an all-too-common problem for social care staff. The strategy will set out recommendations to help providers recognise and manage these wellbeing risks, supporting them to retain staff.

When it comes to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), the workforce strategy will put forward recommendations that prioritise creating an EDI-friendly workplace for all social care providers. Given the diverse nature of the workforce, I think this will go a long way to creating more fair, equitable and pleasant environments for the entire sector. Having a shared vision that is inclusive of all and offering practical guidance on how to achieve better EDI outcomes, the strategy will help to create happy and loyal workforces.

In some ways, the workforce strategy is itself a tool for retention. Having observed and participated in the process so far, it’s clear to me that a huge amount of investment has been made in the strategy, most notably in people’s time and effort across the last year. I hope people will see this investment as a testament to our passion, care, and dedication to the sector, and our commitment to creating better working environments for our colleagues.

You can find out more about the ‘Workforce strategy for adult social care’ or check out our #KeepingTheRightPeople campaign for more helpful information.

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