In 2024/25 the South Yorkshire ICB Health & Social Care Integration programme network embarked on a journey to plan the future focus of the programme. So, in April 2024, with a strong focus on integration from a workforce perspective, we set out on a journey of discovery, ensuring alignment with local, regional and national plans. The Discovery Route timeline 2024-2025 enabled that exploration!
With the changing face of central & local government, NHSE, local organisations and long-held views surrounding the integration of various aspects of the health and social care workforce, it was our ambition to secure a clear understanding of what we needed to focus on in the coming years. Central government has been producing guidance that encourages integration in the health and social care sector for several years. The workforce, which is a component of the community, is well positioned to witness the consequences of fragmented delivery and has firsthand knowledge of the advantages and issues relating to integration. Many of the challenges to integration are outweighed by the experiences of people within our communities.
Primarily those related to misunderstanding, repetition, delays, duplication, gaps, and people becoming "lost in the system." We needed to explore what this meant to the H&SC workforce of South Yorkshire. Developing into "One Workforce" to essentially support the care of our communities, to which the health and social care workforce belongs, may be one of the most important factors in resolving these difficulties within care systems.
Bringing the Roadmaps to LIFE...
Using the QSIR methodology and the various tools we were able to develop the Roadmaps and Timeline of the future: 1 Nursing Workforce within Social Care, 2 Commitment to Carers Partnership, 3 Integrated Neighbourhood Team – Workforce Focus, while continuing to build the integrated network and support innovative work.
We discovered, through this process that the community base was our principal area of activity for integration. Inter-related working relationships have been formed to support growth, is our ‘purposeful activity’ needed to help progress the development of the workforce to support the ‘Hospital to Community’ shift, analogue to digital through prevention focused agenda.
THE ROADMAPS & TIMELINE 2025 – 2028...
