Meet the team: Social Care Workforce Team

The Social Care Workforce Team includes the Regional Lead for Social Care Workforce, Gil Ramsden, and three NSHE Social Care and PIVO Workforce Managers, each aligned to an ICS. We are a new team established to drive a step-change in social care workforce transformation at regional and sub-regional level. 

What does your team do?

As the Social Care Workforce Team we work collaboratively with colleagues in North West ADASS (Association of Directors of Adult Social Services), Local Government Association (LGA) and Skills for Care to provide an opportunity to co-design and strengthen our offer of support to those working in social care professions. Our team is pivotal in maximising opportunities for workforce transformation, driving up quality and ensuring safe and effective services for people who access social care services. We work together to influence our contributions to the social care agenda in all three North West ICSs. 

Fundamentally we work with a broad range of colleagues, promoting opportunities to:

• Create social care placement opportunities and learning insights at entry level, undergraduate and postgraduate level, including those undertaking apprenticeships
• Access clinical development (upskilling) training and resources for those employed in social care in non-registered and registered roles.
• Work with education providers including Manchester University, University of Liverpool, Lancaster University, University of Central Lancashire, Edgehill University and the University of Chester, helping to inform how curriculums can become more orientated towards social care as a destination career.

Our networks include colleagues from:

• Provider organisations, including care homes with and without nursing, home care providers and supported living organisations and the organisations that support them, such as the Care Provider Alliance and Digital Social Care
• Local Authorities, especially workforce leads
• ICB leads and those starting to work into the ICB to advocate for social care as Chairs of the Social Care Nurses Advisory Councils
• University colleagues and those providing social care apprenticeships

What are your priority areas of work?

Our priorities are dependent on the needs of the region, however we strive to ensure that people requiring social care across the north west are supported to access and receive the right care, at the right time, in the right place, by capable staff with the right skill set. Our aim is to develop and embed new ways of working that support people to remain in their home of choice. We do this by: 

• Promoting and supporting strategies that attract, recruit and retain a social care workforce
• Promoting unity between health and social care colleagues, reducing stigma, myths and misconceptions of working in social care, including defining and describing USP of social care roles
• Increasing undergraduate placements within social care for student nurses, trainee nursing associates and AHPs
• Increasing postgraduate learning opportunities within social care for registrants (Nurses, AHPs and Advanced Practitioners)
• Ensuring that all accessing learning opportunities in social care have access to good quality training and peer support

What are your achievements over the past 12 months?     

Our achievements from the past 12 months has been our work in collaboration with local, regional and national networks. We have supported access to funding for professional development programmes that upskill non-registered and registered social care professionals. We also supported a programme of work in collaboration with North West ADASS to understand what infrastructure we need to ensure safe and effective health care activities. We are in the process of developing a resource to support this work.

How can you contact the team?

You can contact any member of the North West Social Care Workforce Team by email:

Gil Ramsden, Regional Lead for Social Care Workforce

Social Care and PIVO Workforce Development Managers

Sue Noon for Cheshire and Merseyside

Annette Baines and Susan Clarke for Greater Manchester

Kate Burgess for Lancashire and South Cumbria