Agenda item

To receive a report from the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Commissioning and Public Health and the Director of Public Health, setting out work undertaken by NHS colleagues and Public Health to address NHS and Social Care and Public Health workforce and training issues, which the Cabinet Committee is asked to note and endorse.  

Ms G Walton, Executive Support Manager Older People and Physical Disability and Design and Learning Centre Programme Manager, was in attendance for this item.

1.            Dr Duggal introduced the report and emphasised that there were two aspects to workforce planning; work undertaken by NHS and social care partners, over which the Council Council had no direct control or influence, and work undertaken by the Council Council. Dr Duggal advised the committee that she served on the STP workforce workstream group. Ms Walton added that she was involved in the STP group, looking at the social care agenda. The STP had a development plan to focus on six areas and identify work for the future.  The Local Workforce Action Board (LWAB) was co-chaired by Anne Tidmarsh and an NHS lead, and included Dr Duggal, so this supported good health and social care links. Mrs Tidmarsh had also been confirmed as the Senior Responsible Officer for the STP workforce work stream.  Dr Duggal and Ms Walton responded to comments and questions from the committee, including the following:

a)  the importance of liaising between health and social care to upskill the whole care workforce was emphasised. Ms Walton confirmed that she was working with Clare Maynard in the County Council’s Adult Social Care Directorate to implement the strategy which already existed to ensure that this happened effectively;

b)  concern was expressed about the high turnover of health service staff, and a question asked about how pay levels and more prescriptive job descriptions might be used to help reduce this. Kent could lead the way in being an attractive employer where people wanted to stay. Dr Duggal acknowledged the importance of achieving a good range of work skills and work-life balance and explained that part of the LWAB’s work aimed to attract and retain good staff in Kent. Ms Walton added that work was ongoing on modelling a social care career pathway, and a campaign to raise the profile of the career and recruit more care sector staff would be starting shortly, using Government funding gained through the LWAB. She undertook to share the plan and strategy for this work with Members when these were ready;

c)  concern was expressed that the plan to attract new GPs from overseas might be made more difficult by the fact that many overseas workers no longer felt welcome in the UK, and a question was asked about how they would be housed. Dr Duggal agreed that this was an important practical point; 

d)   concern was expressed that the new medical school, if opened in 2020, would take until 2026 to produce its first graduates, and those people would then need to be retained in Kent.  Dr Duggal explained that past experience had shown that graduates tended to stay on in the area in which they had studied, so having a medical school based in Kent should benefit staff retention rates for Kent;

e)  asked why people left health and social care careers, and about the importance of being aware of these reasons when modelling career pathways, Dr Duggal explained that exit interviews were undertaken by the NHS, and an approach could be made via human resources teams in the County Council and NHS to see if the reasons stated in these interviews could be accessed.  She undertook to look into this; 

f)   the problem was highlighted of Kent competing with London pay rates to attract and retain staff.  London weighting made it attractive to work in London and live in Kent to saving housing costs.  London also had large, prestigious teaching hospitals and research facilities. Dr Duggal acknowledged this but said that Kent’s medical school would add to research options in the south east. She confirmed that liaison with the County Council’s Growth, Environment and Transport Directorate would form part of this work;

g)  Ms Walton clarified that GP development plans would apply to new and existing GPs. She also confirmed that Kent was part of the multi-disciplinary teams which were supporting change management;

h)  work was ongoing to raise awareness and understanding of the role and value of apprenticeships in the health and social care sector. The Apprenticeship levy would be used to support this development; and

i)    a question was asked about the apparent disparity in the way in which apprenticeships and degree courses were funded, and costs accrued by students but not apprentices, to achieve the same qualification and possibly the same salary at the end. Apprenticeships would be funded from the Apprenticeship Levy, with nominal costs to the student, while students taking a degree course would have to bear the expense of servicing and repaying a student loan. Ms Walton commented that the issue was one of valuing, developing and retaining the current workforce, and the social care degree standard provided that opportunity.

2.            The Cabinet Member, Mr Oakford, commented that the number of current GP vacancies was of great concern and would take a long time to address.  Mr Scott-Clark added that the County Council, via its involvement in STP work, needed to make clear this ongoing challenge.  However, the County Council would need to be clear that addressing health and social care workforce issues was not part of its role and that the Council had no formal role in addressing these, although the Council would need to broaden the public’s understanding of its own public health role.  He added that he hoped that the Kent Medical School would copy the successful model of the Brighton school, with which it was linked.  A request was made that Anne Tidmarsh be asked to raise within the STP workforce group concerns expressed that the GP recruitment plans were not sufficiently ambitious

3.           It was RESOLVED that the work by the Local Workforce Action Board and Design and Learning Centre on the NHS and Social Care Workforce Challenge, and the work of Public Health to develop the Public Health workforce and contribute to the development of Public Health skills in the NHS and Social Care workforce, be noted and endorsed.