How to create a workforce plan

A workforce plan is an important part of being prepared for the future. We’ve put together a simple template to help you create your own workforce plan.

It’s important for employers of all sizes to think about planning for the future and making sure you have the people you need in your team to provide the care and support required.

A helpful part of this process is to create a workforce plan which will aid you in thinking about what your goals and requirements are, and the people and skills you’ll need to have in your team to meet those needs.

Your workforce plan is not the all-inclusive finished product. It’s the first stage of a workforce planning process to prompt you in thinking about what you need to put in place. Your plan will need to be reviewed regularly and updated with progress, learnings, and successes.

We recommend that you share your plan widely to keep your team, the people you support, families, carers, the community, commissioners, and other professionals updated on how your organisation is supporting your workforce to deliver high-quality care and support.

Here are some suggestions of what you might include in your workforce plan.

Introduction

Write a brief description of the purpose of the plan including an overview of your organisation, what you do, where you are now and what your challenges are with where you want to be.

Scope of the plan

Confirm which part of the organisation (the full organisation or part) the plan is for, detail any ongoing team planning or changes, and how long the plan is for. Remember to refer back to this again in your future workforce planning.

Context

Outline a brief introduction to any context for your organisation e.g., national, regional, system and local (legislation, policy drivers etc.) and what it means for your organisation. You can use Skills for Care’s Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) to track you workforce data and benchmark this against other similar providers, and you can also find more national and regional data about the sector in our ‘State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report and our regional data.

Ambitions, aims and objectives

Summarise your priorities, a brief outline of your values to meet these and include a snapshot of your analysis and data. Further detail can always be added in as an appendix.

Key priorities and how you're going to achieve them

Consider how you’re going to achieve these ambitions, aims and objectives. Describe the people, tools and budget that you’re going to use and what you’re going to do.

References

Signpost to key documents/appendices.

Download this workforce plan template to complete yourself.

Find out more about workforce planning, why it’s important and how to get started with our #PlanningForSuccess spotlight.

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