>>David Davis: The Workforce Development Programme is a 3 year programme focused on improving
the clinical competence, capability and other key factors of the integrated urgent care
and NHS 111 workforce. The Conference today, 1st November, is a really exciting opportunity
half way through the programme to share the products we are developing and tell our key
stakeholders what’s coming next and how they can be involved in the future.
>>Alan Ryan: My name is Alan Ryan; I’m the Interim Director for National Programmes at
Health Education England. For me it is our priority, is to have a workforce that feels
valued and understands the importance of what they deliver to patients and the NHS. The
great thing about this conference is we have a great mix of providers, commissioners and
front-line staff.
>>Anthony Kealy: Hi, I’m Anthony Kealy, I’m head of Integration Delivery at NHS
England and as part of that; I’m joint SRO for Integrated Urgent Care Workforce Development
Programme. Well I think we’ve got such an opportunity with the work that’s going on
to develop a new more robust clinical advice service for Integrated Urgent Care. A real
opportunity to transform the workforce and the transform role of 111 out of hour’s
services and all of the clinical services that support them. To transform those services
in a way which really helps take the pressure the acute system and gives patients a better
experience of the whole of the urgent care services in the NHS. So I think the real priority
for the workforce is to make sure we are developing the right skills, the right competencies and
obviously having the right numbers of professionals supporting all of the rest of the workforce
in this service.
>>Matthew Swindells: I’m Matthew Swindells and I have the privilege of being the National
Director for Operations and information, which I have been doing for the last five months
now. It’s a new role which brings together the commissioning function of NHS England,
the Regions, Information and IT. Integrated Urgent Care is a classic example of that systems
thinking that when we run services for patients that are in silos, we get duplication, we
get failure at hand offs and we get a poor service. And a core element of that service,
of that integrated urgent care is the role of 111. How do we create a shift, what you
might call a channel shift of people to get their care in the right place, at the right
time in a way that is more appropriate to the needs of the individual. So the service
offered by 111 is an absolutely crucial part of that channel shift. How do we create the
space for GP’s to see the people that they should see. How do we create the space for
A&E to manage the people that they should see, so that we offer a better quality of
service for everybody and how do we get it so that people, who just need advice, can
just get advice rather than having to give up a morning while they wait for a GP appointment.
When you think about your workforce, the question isn’t really about bums in seats and vacancies,
it’s about the critical contribution that that workforce makes to this shift without
which we can’t make the NHS work. It’s our staff morale, it’s the support, it’s
the level of training, it’s the skill set that we are getting the right ones we need.
We are taking something like fourteen million calls a year now through 111 but of the people
who call 111 are told to see their GP; half of them still go to A&E. So we’re not getting
traction on the advice we give. So we need create an existence for the 111 service that
sees itself as part of a fundamental transformation in the NHS, not as an add-on. We need to have
our staff, our workforce understanding and believing that they are actually a part of
a campaign to make the health of people better and not just turning up for work.
>>Helen Thomas: I’m Dr Helen Thomas, I’m the national medical advisor for Integrated
Urgent Care, I work for NHS England in London. I think improving the quality of life and
the retention of the health advisors as they are the key people to the whole of the Integrated
Urgent Care Clinical Assessment service. They’re taking the first moment of contact for the
patients.
>>Matthew Swindells: From April 2017 there will be 60 whole-time equivalent pharmacists
funded to go into clinical assessment services as part of a 111 service and 120 training
places on a new programme to create independent prescribers. So part of shifting the workforce
to be suitable for the new ways of working, rather than the old ways of working. I will
close by quoting Grace Petrie who says ‘Be Strong, Be Resilient, Be Brilliant’. So
thank you very much.
>>Michela Littlewood-Prince: My names Michela Littlewood, I’m head of nursing and quality
assurance and I work for NHS 111 in Yorkshire ambulance service. I think the top priority
for me is going to be recruiting the right staff, particularly clinicians who’ve got
the right skills, who are enthusiastic about working in a new and different creative environment.
>>David Davis: It’s a joint partnership arrangement between NHS England and Health
Education England and the purpose back at the beginning was for us to address issues
around workforce attrition, trying to increase hear and treat, reduce the number of 999 and
emergency department dispositions, but above all, invest in what we felt was one of the
most important workforce areas within NHS. Handling the front door of out of hours and
urgent care. We are trying to develop the workforce, the really important workforce
of health advisors, clinicians and more widely to be able to support patients the best we
can whilst delivering care.
>>Sharon Harrison: My name is Sharon Harrison, I’m a national programmes manager, I work
for Health Education England and this programme is very much a joint programme with NHS England.
To develop the programme in terms of looking at what our overarching aim is to support
the development, and you’ll hear it quite a lot, of an optimal Integrated Urgent Care
workforce for the future and our job is really to look at developing a blueprint which will
include a career structure with skills, levels and competencies. And the aim is really ultimately
to improve the service that patients are getting making sure that we can assure the quality
and improve recruitment and retention of your staff. All really important things. One of
the elements we are looking at is apprenticeships, so that will go across the whole of the career
trajectory; the potential is that that could go up to master’s level.
>>David Davis: The next part that we’re working on right now is the Integrated Urgent
Care Clinical Assessment service (Clinical Hub). So we’re looking at the core competencies
and those components that allow people to practice effectively within that environment.
>>Iain Upton: My name is Iain Upton, I offer a patient perspective with my unique patient
voice. I’ve had throat cancer, I’m nearly blind, I sound like this and I haven’t eaten
a meal in four years. If patient’s voice is so important, and apparently it is, you
can read any NHS strategic paper and it goes on about patient involvement. My voice, but
why? Your routine, your everyday practice, is not my routine. You do it every day; I
hope to do it once in a lifetime. I hope that helps you recognise good and bad practice.
I’ve seen plenty of both. What you think might be good and effective; I might think
is frightening and hopeless. Ask me, I can tell you. But compassion impacted me many
times. It opened my attitude. It made me feel better. You show me compassion and I will
remember.
>>David Davis: So we’re working to provide accreditation to the courses and training
that staff undertake, which together will deliver a career framework.
>>Rachael Smith: My name is Rachael Smith; I am co-developer of the Calderdale Framework
and a director for Effective Workforce Solutions Ltd.
>>Jayne Duffy: Hi, I’m Jayne Duffy and I’m the other co-developer of the Calderdale Framework
and also a director of Effective Workforce Solutions Ltd.
>>Rachael Smith: Ok so we were commissioned by NHS England and Health Education England
to work with two reference sites and that was to use the Calderdale Framework to start
to tease out what the optimal workforce would look like in NHS 111. Out of that has come
job descriptions, competencies sets and career framework. I think the future is potentially
very exciting for the future 111 at Integrated Care workforce, mainly because it’s the
potential be a larger Integrated Hub, which will give potentially a much better service
for patients and potentially a better career pathway for staff in those services.