Work Force

New Ways of Working (NWW)

This initiative is about changing the practice of the current workforce; developing extended roles beyond the scope of current professional practice and bringing in new people to the workforce in new roles, at assistant and practitioner levels. There is no single model for NWW; it is simply about making the best use of the skills in the workforce to meet need in a cost effective way.

Since the NIMHE National Workforce initiative began in January 2003 it has addressed key workforce issues and published widely, working collaboratively with professional bodies, employers and workforce organisations.

Key Achievements

These achievements include:

• the advance of NWW nationally to break down professional barriers
• promote flexible working and
• develop the workforce based on capabilities and competences to meet the needs of service users and carers.

Proposed priorities for the regions for 08/09 - NWW & workforce

Each Regional Development Centre, including London, has a local programme of work which focuses on NWW and workforce. The National team and the local workforce representative work in partnership to deliver on workforce issues. The proposed key Priorities for 2008/09 for the regions in listed below

To keep a major focus on the implementation of NWW and workforce reform in both health and social care through collaborative projects with SHAS, NHS Confederation, Skills for Care and CSIP Regional Development Centres, to include:

• Individual support to trusts and social care organisations
• Learning sets, for example to middle managers and clinical leads, where senior staff have committed, or to senior staff where they are near the beginning of strategic implementation of NWW
• Creating Capable Teams- individual team facilitation to develop capability and capacity locally
• Identifying and sharing, through the NWW website, research and practice based evidence, including economic evaluation of NWW.

To support the planning, procurement, training and development of the workforce to deliver IAPT, including:

• Practitioners delivering low and high intensity interventions
• Appropriate training places and supervision arrangements
• Accreditation processes through BABCP
• NWW for applied psychologists initially and subsequently for counsellors and psychotherapists
• Raising psychological awareness in primary care, secondary care and the wider community including employers and the voluntary sectors.

To build on work to develop values based practice in the workforce (10 Essential Shared Capabilities Framework), by ensuring that this underpins new roles in mental health and changed functions, specifically to improve care coordination as part of CPA, and develop capabilities for personalisation and dignity.

To promote safety through improved leadership of medicines management, through promotion of the Medicines Management [MM] Self Assessment Toolkit in Trusts, exploration of extending the role of the pharmacy technician and facilitating improved training for all staff on basic MM.

To support national and local colleagues to address workforce issues across Primary Care, Mental Health Act, Older People, CAMHS, Acute Inpatient Care and Delivering Race Equality

Useful workforce related Web Links

• www.newwaysofworking.org.uk
• www.skillsforhealth.org.uk
• www.skillsforcare.org.uk
• www.lincoln.ac.uk/ccawi

Information

• IAPT  (improving access to psychological therapies) - Publications recently produced to support delivery
  • Curriculum for High Intensity Therapies Workers
  • Curriculum for Low Intensity Therapies Workers
  • Equality Impact Assessment
  • Impact Assessment
  • National Guidelines for Regional Delivery
• CCTA  (creating capable teams approach) - Portfolio of documents available to support implementation
• Medicines Management leaflet - for carers and service users
• NWW Implementation Guide – for organisations
• STR (support time recovery workers) – handbook for STR  workers &  their managers
• 10 ESC (Essential Shared Capabilities) - revised training pack

Current work:

• Regional NWW learning sets
• Development of a Medicines management self assessment toolkit
• National research on outcomes from NWW
• Development of a Competency framework for STRs
• Regional workshops to consult on Applied Psychology roles
• Continued drive to increase numbers of CDW (community development worker) roles

Future developments:

• Best practice guide for commissioners
• National conference on NWW
• Research on impact of CDWs
• Guidance on introduction of pharmacy technician role
• IAPT – additional learning & assessment materials for low intensity workers