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Recruiting and retaining together: how ICSs can support with recruiting and retaining

18 May 2023

5 min read

Skills for Care

Integration
Recruitment
Retention
Skills for Care

We hear from people working as part of their local Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) about how they’re supporting care providers in their area with recruitment and retention.

Black Country ICS

The Black Country ICS has established a Social Care Recruitment and Retention Network across the local area.

The network was created as the result of conversations between care providers and the Workforce Transformation Lead in the Black Country, along with Skills for Care.

These conversations identified that providers were feeling overwhelmed with the number of organisations available in the area who could provide training, recruitment, and workforce-related support, and often didn’t have the time to unpick how each could support them in their recruitment goals.

Thanks to this network, a number of initiatives have been funded across the system to support providers to overcome recruitment and retention challenges.

One initiative that has been introduced by the network is free bus passes for all new adult social care workers in the local community for the first month of their role.

This recruitment initiative is a direct result of the Recruitment and Retention Network’s collaborative approach to identifying barriers and finding solutions to overcome them. The idea was brought to life by bringing together shared connections, contacts, learning, and resources across the network.

Over 50 organisations that can support the sector with recruitment and retention issues are represented on the network – such as training providers and recruitment agencies.

Now, care providers can find all these contacts in one dedicated network making these useful services much easier to access. Different support organisations within the network have also utilised the shared connections to adapt their offering and bring together their offers to develop joint products and services that best support sector needs.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICS

Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICS has a key focus on upskilling, supporting, and retaining the people already working in the sector, and are encouraging organisations to think more strategically about maximising the skills that exist among their current staff.

The ICS has invested in an ICS retention lead role across health and social care, who will play an active role in finding solutions to retention challenges raised by the sector.

The retention lead has one-to-one conversations with social care providers to gain their insights and builds this into their retention planning and solutions for the health and social care sector.

The ICS has also introduced an ICS Talent Management and Development Framework which supports a system-wide focus on maximising potential, career progression, and leadership development.

Every health and social care organisation is encouraged to sign an agreement that they will adopt this framework. In turn, they’ll receive access to a range of leadership tools, training, and other development offers.

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS

The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS has a ‘People Hub’ which works across the system supporting health and social care workforce recruitment requirements.

This is a funded central hub which means that time and resource can be dedicated to issues around recruitment and retention. The hub can look in-depth at issues such as how health and social care roles are marketed, and can drive forward solutions to challenges.

The ICS has also recently set up a retention team across health and social care, which will focus on creating solutions to retention issues facing the health and social care sector. The team will include two retention coordinators who will be specifically focused on social care.

This is supported by a Retention Steering Group which sits under the ICS but works in conjunction with Staffordshire County Council’s workforce strategy.

To raise the profile of health and social care as a career, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS have supported a successful graduate scheme, working with local colleges. The placements available span both health and social care and have led to positive engagement with the social care sector among young people, which is crucial in securing our future workforce.

Social care has also been included in an ICS-funded mentoring programme established with Derby University. Under the programme, managers from either health or social care will mentor individuals. The cross-sector mentoring will mean people are exposed to a wider variety of relationships and jobs across the wider health and social care sector.