Skills for Care: #PlanningForSuccess

Skills for Care has launched a campaign to support Social Care Providers with #PlanningForSuccess by providing information and resources regarding effective Workforce Planning.

The latest campaign from Skills for Care aims to demystify Workforce Planning and to guide employers on how to get started - as well as highlighting the benefits of planning for now and for the future.

Workforce planning encompasses many elements from recruiting new staff, to retaining and developing current staff, managing safe staffing levels and contingency plans, and thinking about what roles you need to have in place to meet the growing and changing needs of people requiring care and support.

Skills for Care hopes their latest spotlight will help Social Care Providers to realise they’re already doing many elements of Workforce Planning in their day-to-day business management and to provide support in continuing to analyse, plan and review the process in order to be as effective as possible.

The organisation’s #PlanningForSuccess campaign will include information and ideas to explain what Workforce Planning is and how to do it well.

The campaign will run across Skills for Care’s website, social media, and other communications channels with blogs and articles sharing expert insight and real-life case studies, as well as signposting to further resources and other support.

The launch of this campaign comes following the release of Skills for Care’s ‘State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England report’, which highlighted the current recruitment and retention challenges facing the sector, with vacancy rates at their highest on record. The report also highlighted the need to think about long-term capacity for the sector, with a growing demand for care and the estimated need for an extra 480,000 people working in social care by 2035. In addition, we may lose approximately 430,000 people in the next 10-years if those aged 55 and over decide to retire.

With the winter months fast approaching, the #PlanningForSuccess Campaign will also touch on preparing for Winter and contingency planning.

Oonagh Smyth, CEO of Skills for Care said:

‘This is an important time for the sector to be focusing on workforce planning and we’re happy to be able to provide support with this activity, which can seem quite daunting’.

Adding, ‘Our most recent data highlights not only the current recruitment and retention challenges in the sector but also the need to start thinking now about planning for our future workforce. This includes developing our current staff to progress into future roles, keeping on top of the skills required to meet changing needs and wants of people drawing on care, and attracting more people – particularly younger people – into care roles to keep pace with future demand’.

‘We know that social care managers are facing a lot of pressure right now, and we hope this campaign will make the process of workforce planning easier and more effective for providers of all sizes. Getting the right process in place for this now will help to support providers with their future capacity and the changing nature of care delivery’.

Visit the Skills for Care website to find out more about the campaign. Alternatively, you can follow the campaign on social media using #PlanningForSuccess