Using workforce planning to develop my team and what we offer

Les Latchman, Registered Manager at Radnor House tells us about his approach to workforce planning.

I’ve been a care manager for 37 years. My parents started in the care business in 1976 and I grew up with the residents around me. When my parents chose to open another care home, I was given the opportunity to join the business and I took charge of Radnor House in October 1985.

Radnor House was only a 10 bedded unit to start, and I lived on the premises for three years with my wife. I supported Radnor House’s growth with the purchase of the building next door and after two building projects, expanded the service to accommodate up to 29 residents.

Developing the future team

Throughout the years as the business has grown, supporting staff to upskill and attain their qualifications has been a priority. I’m always on the lookout for who would be able to take over the role of registered manager when I retire.

We’ve seen our deputy managers move on once they reach a certain level, because the registered manager role isn’t yet available here.

We did have one staff member “M” who started back in 1999 as a night care worker, took up training and qualified as a care manager and attained her social work degree while working at Radnor House. She left us in 2016 to do field social work and I invited her to re-join Radnor House in 2020 at a point when I was starting to seriously reconsider who could take over my role due to ill-health.

I feel confident with M in post as we have a lot of similar traits in our management styles. I’m now planning to slow down because M is able to take charge of the day-to-day running of the service.

My role has changed and I now provide support to the team while overseeing the business activities, bringing innovation and making the business fit for the future.

Thinking ahead to ensuring this side of the business is covered when I take a further step back, I invited my daughter to join the business to learn specifically what I do and how she can offer support to the staff team.

Innovating what we offer

I’m continually looking to develop what we do at Radnor House to provide enhanced care and support to our residents, and to continue to meet the growing and changing requirements of people who draw on care and support.

Having completed my Level 7 Diploma in Health and Social Care, I decided to provide more therapeutic support and meaningful activities for our residents.

To do this meant understanding the contracting arrangements for the people who we support and planning the staffing needed to provide this enhanced support.

We moved from a fixed price contract to a flexible pricing structure based on an individual’s care and support needs. Meaning that we would have more money to invest into the enhanced support offer and in recruiting more staff to provide this.

The importance of workforce planning

Principally, workforce planning is a critical part of any business planning process. In this case, the business and the service were already established. Because of that we also knew that staff is our single highest cost at over 63% of our income. Some care home businesses report up to 72% of income is spent on staffing. It’s therefore important to understand your market conditions, what are the drivers that will support the business plan to be able to pay out up to 72% of income on human resources?

Underpinning all this is the business plan and strategy, what are our aims and objectives and how does that fit within the business plans of the commissioners, regulators, and other stakeholders?

Identifying strengths and weaknesses and where you want to go with the business is key. We also have two aspiring deputies in training to attain their Level 5 Diploma in Health and Social Care and this bodes well for the future.

I’m pleased to say the business plan and strategy worked out very well, the plan has been realised and despite COVID-19, we’re fortunate to have a stable business that has been rated as “Good” by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and provides the desired outcomes for residents in our care.

Find out more about workforce planning with our #PlanningForSuccess spotlight.

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