HEE Roles Explorer

“In my role I am responsible for ensuring we have a sustainable healthcare workforce both now and in the future. As part of that we overcome supply challenges by piloting and deploying innovative workforce solutions. An example is support for a system wide People Hub which operates a bank of staff critical in supporting workforce gaps across all care settings.

Widening participation is a big part of my work, using system wide apprenticeship schemes we have introduced new roles into care. We are a Cornerstone Employer for the NHS, meaning we work with a cluster of secondary schools and colleges in careers hubs, to support careers provision in the area. Their goal is to ensure all young people in an area have the opportunities they need to be prepared and inspired for the world of work. Examples of new apprenticeship roles have included system wide Mental Health and End of Life apprenticeships. Staffordshire is now on their second cohort of their System Health and Social Care Apprenticeship.

When approaching the introduction of new apprenticeship roles into system wide provider settings there are a few things I would recommend. Work with as many different community groups and education settings as you can to promote the roles, this will give you an inclusive workforce representative of the community it serves. Ensure that you have appropriate clinical representation when developing a career pathway. Have good partnerships with different organisations; for our apprenticeship work we collaborated with six providers, a host employer and had strong relationships with local colleges to pilot courses and make them relevant. Finally, do not underestimate the amount of pastoral care and wider support that those taking up the roles will require, in the case of apprentices who are often young people we worked with the whole family."

“ImROC (Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change) works in partnership with communities to develop systems, services and cultures that support recovery and wellbeing for all. When we established ImROC in 2009, we made peer support a key tenet of our approach to creating recovery-focused organisations.  Since that time, we have worked with many different organisations, developing a comprehensive pathway for developing peer workers and their employing organisations in the UK and internationally.

Peer support workers are the answer to a huge number of challenges facing healthcare at the moment.  They embody the possibility of recovery, so they inspire hope and reduce self-stigma, they offer time to build relationships within which people recognise their own strengths and skills.  They provide practical support to overcome day to day challenges and by sharing their own experiences and coping strategies they work together with others who have similar experiences to build solutions.   

We train people with their own lived experience to use their experience to safely and effectively support those going through similar challenges. The demand for this service is created by enabling those with experience to share it.

We are still at the beginning of the journey of introducing peer support in statutory services; we want to learn together and collaborate nationally for the Peer Support Worker role to be the best that it can be. The challenge is to ensure that we build on the expertise around mutual support that exists in our communities and in user-led community groups, in order to make the learning accessible, acceptable, and effective.”

“Nottinghamshire has an Integrated Care System (ICS) with the training hub having a recognised role for primary care in planning and delivering workforce change. I am a community nurse by background and currently my role is as a programme manager with Nottinghamshire Alliance Training Hub (NATH). I am also a part-time lecturer at Nottingham Trent University on undergraduate and post graduate clinical courses.

In Nottinghamshire, GP Federations are employing new roles in primary care and I am programme managing the training hub in delivering initiatives for the Additional Roles Re-imbursement Scheme (ARRS) for the area. We have developed tools, resources and governance processes for our Primary Care Networks (PCN) to support the introduction of the new roles, proposing a hub and spoke model for clinical supervision delivery. This shared responsibility means reduced risk and increases the potential for the introduction of the new roles to succeed.

To maximise the potential for success in a programme such as this I would recommend that you get everyone around the table from day one. Create an open and transparent space for honest discussion where everyone understands the roles and responsibilities of the project team and stakeholders, with actions that are clearly defined. Ensure all deadlines are understood to keep the programme on track. Finally deliver the change in bite sized chunks, recognise that you are delivering it for the long term, so it needs to have clear metrics and be evaluated as part of making the change sustainable."