Staff praised for health and care workforce planning
Raj Bhamber, the Chief People Officer at Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB has congratulated everyone involved in the system-wide workforce planning and development initiative.
The initiative was a finalist in Healthcare People’s Management Association (HPMA) Excellence in People Awards in the category of ‘HSJ Jobs Award for Systems Workforce Planning’.
At the awards ceremony on 19 September, the BOB-wide health and care system was praised for its innovative approach in finding new ways of organising and developing its workforce in response to the challenges posed by the Covid pandemic over the past three years.
The initiative has been led by human resource teams (known as the BOB ICS People’s Programme) from across the system. These teams have carried out around 30 ‘deep dives’ since 2020, to understand the staffing problems encountered in our trusts and to find ways to fix them.
As part of the ‘deep dive’ process Health Dynamics Consulting supported human resource teams in co-designing an innovative tool and methodology using the nationally recognised Health Education England STAR workforce transformation framework.
Raj said: “We are very proud of the hard work and dedication of local health and care teams. They have been recognised on a national stage for their innovative approach in finding new ways of organising and developing its workforce. I thank everyone involved in bringing this about.”
Raj said: “The challenges posed by the pandemic especially around staff shortages brought us all together to find solutions to ensure we could manage patient care better. This has included up-skilling staff and introducing new ways of working.
“It has also ensured our partners have been able to tackle post pandemic elective care waits more efficiently, especially in cancer services. The initiative also provides a solid base for the continued roll out of integrated care across our health and care system which will benefit many more patients.”
Raj added: “We are now in a much better position to implement the national NHS Long Term Workforce Plan across BOB as we understand the needs and requirements of our own workforce so much better.”
Raj also congratulated Terry Roberts, Chief People Officer at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for winning the HPMA Director of the Year Award and to Tracey Slegg, Deputy Director of People at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust for reaching the finals of the HPMA Deputy Director award.