The theme of the BSG conference was ‘Inclusive participation throughout ageing: creating a society for all’ and the HWL team were invited to present two papers.
Sue Lewis, who led the HWL research work to negotiate access to the care homes, presented on the topic of “Retaining Care Home Staff” while Sophia Bowlby and I considered ways of Exploring the work-life of residential care homes. We drew on the nine months of research work in accessing and co-design activities, to offer a framework of an 'Ecology of care.'
The focus of HWL is firmly on supporting and working with our four change-maker teams to explore and potentially develop “Innovation solutions”. The teams comprise care workers, entrepreneurs and cross-sector organisations including Codebase, Creative Venue and Scottish Care. This edition and future HWL Bulletins spotlight the work of our projects.
Meanwhile, we welcomed the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan with an initial package for education and training totalling an additional £2.4 billion investment in the workforce to 2028/29. The plan is described by the NSHE Chief Executive, Amanda Pritchard, as a “seminal moment “in the 75-year history of the NHS. This multifaceted report considers how to “train, retain, reform” to ensure we can develop a health and social care workforce for the coming decades.
See the NHS Long term Workforce Plan here.
HWL looks forward to exploring the plan in more depth and considering how our work can support and develop the future workforce. Our aims are broadly to “recruit, retain, develop” and HWL is well positioned to have impact on the core of any social care provision, namely, its people.