This is a significant programme within the Wakefied People Plan and contains a range of projects.

PCN Workforce Strategies

We will support the development of Primary Care Network (PCN) workforce strategies, including evolution of multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) that support the work of general practice. We will support PCNs to develop new roles as part of the Additional Role Reimbursement Scheme. These roles will work across organisational and professional boundaries. We will also support the alignment of PCN MDTs with community health services and social care.

Integrating Community Health Services and Adult Social Care Teams

We will support the integration of community rehabilitation and reablement services, a key part of the local community transformation programme. We will also embed and evaluate the Integrated Discharge Team to assess the benefits of MDT working when supporting people who ae leaving hospital.

Rotational Paramedics

We will explore the potential for further development of Rotational Paramedics. The Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) commenced the first phase of a rotational paramedic programme in September 2021 with six specialist paramedics rotating between YAS and six primary care networks (PCNs).

CLEAR Programme

CLEAR (Clinically-Led workforcE and Activity Redesign) funding has been awarded to West Yorkshire for mental health and urgent and emergency care. This is being led by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (mental health) and Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust (urgent and emergency care). We will ensure the learning from these initiatives are shared to maximise the potential benefit across a wider footprint.

Digital staff passports

We will review the opportunities for digital staff passports to enable deployment of staff across the system to enable flexibility, demand and development.

Collaborative Staff Bank

We will explore the potential for a collaborative staff bank to optimise the utilisation of temporary staff, reducing agency costs and improving service user experience.

Flexible Working Models

We will continue to share examples of innovative working models to support staff to benefit from flexible working opportunities and to support an agile workforce. We will build on the redeployment process and Memorandum of understanding (MoU) for shared staff redeployment across organisations, developed during the pandemic. It will be inclusive of all staff including commissioned services and the staff delivering and supporting our community members.

The Wakefield MoU for staff redeployment developed in the first wave of the pandemic has been reviewed. Partners are committed to working together to secure mutual aid by agreeing to support critical business continuity. We are also committed to the development of new hybrid working models of working to create more flexible working environment for staff. Staff surveys have been completed to gather information on how staff would like to work moving forward, and HR directors are committed to sharing their plans. Staff are being supported to work flexibly/hybrid to meet business and personal needs.

In order to highlight the overlap between physical and mental health, we support activities to tackle the stigma towards mental health amongst health and social care staff. We will encourage the collaboration and transfer of staff between physical and mental health services and create new roles that work across mental and physical health service boundaries.

In Wakefield we have seen the expansion of General Practice workforce through maximisation of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme. This includes the introduction of new roles such as Social Prescribing Link Workers, Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians, First Contact Practitioners, Care Coordinators, Health and Wellbeing Coordinators, Paramedics, Advanced Clinical Practitioners, Physicians Associates and Nurse Associates.

We have established a new group, led by the Director of Nursing, which includes key stakeholders from Learning and Development, workforce planning, operational senior leaders and staff side representation. This group assesses and identifies emerging roles and available funding support.

Career pathways are being developed specifically for the nursing, psychology and Allied Health Professions. We have introduced Housing Co-ordinators based into the hospital to address housing barriers to discharge. This post provides additional wrap around wellbeing services to address mental health, health inequalities and financial inclusion.

We will support the Mental Health Alliance in the delivery of their Band 2 apprenticeship model which is supported by their care certificate delivery. Take up of their trainee nurse associate (TNA) rollout has been high.  They currently have 92 staff in the programme and are now expanding into support roles for other professional groups such as Allied health professions (AHPs), psychology and pharmacy.

The Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust has recruited 24 whole time equivalent (wte) healthcare support workers to work across health and social care, providing support to discharge and post discharge settlement. We have developed of new service model for the Integrated Discharge Team. This includes co-location and integration of health and social care teams to improve joint working. We have identified new roles within the team, including recent proposals on a mental health support worker.

Wakefield has also been developing an MDT approach to the development of Virtual Wards and the integration of community rehabilitation and reablement.