In a series of blogs supporting 5 videos recently recorded, 7 UK Care Provider CEOs discuss their Workforce observations and learning through hindsight. Introduced by John Pollaers and coinciding with the release of his Australian Workforce Strategy Report, their feedback is both candid and instructional.

Helen Sanderson pretty much wrote the book on Person Centred Care in England. After 10 years’ leading the UK’s early development work and 10 years’ as the Expert Advisor on Person Centered Approaches, she decided to put her money where her mouth is, firstly in consulting and training and then as a Home Care Operator. Helen is very open about her personal challenges in a new environment, and even clearer on the critical ingredients for keeping clients and staff.

Self-Managed, Shared responsibility
Helen describes her Wellbeing Teams as being small - 10 or 12 people maximum, with a definite geographic boundary. The teams work in a multi-tasking environment where service delivery is part of all roles along with a variety of specialist tasks assigned to support the team:

• Scheduler to build the roster that supports clients’ and employees’ needs;
• Recruitment Coordinator as appointments are team decisions;
• Meeting Coordinator;
• Story Teller for community and related engagement;
• Coach and Wellbeing leader.

Staff Engagement and Happiness
In the USA, the ‘workplace’ is the 5th largest cause of death in the community. ‘Dying for a Pay cheque’ inspired two central themes for Wellbeing Teams — Autonomy and Tangible Social Support.

Different start – Candidate Experience as important as Client Experience
The next topic Helen discusses is to find a different way to bring people into the sector and a different way to pay attention to their needs:

• ‘We intentionally look outside the sector to avoid ‘recycled’ candidates and inheriting poor practice that will not cut it in a Wellbeing Team’
• ‘We recruit for values, make it a joint decision and monitor candidate experience for all, not just the successful’
• Any new starter in a Wellbeing team goes through a 4-day induction.  “1 page profiles” as a basis of team building
• Helen focuses on identifying work and development opportunities for her staff.

Biggest lesson
Helen’s biggest lesson over the last 15 years in Social Care: If you are not being Person Centred with your staff you cannot expect them to be Person Centred with their clients.
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Whilst in its early days, Wellbeing Teams are based on a proven model, localised where necessary, but retaining the values, engagement, autonomy and social support that deliver ownership of client and team outcomes.

Whilst recommendation and referral are critical in an empowered consumer market, Martin Jones, MD of Home Instead Senior Care, is focused on the long game as they seek to become the UK’s ‘Most Admired’ service provider by ‘changing the face of ageing’. With 200 offices in the UK, Martin is joined by Gail Deveraux–Batchelor, one of their franchise owners, for both a national and local perspective.  The Workforce strategy, whilst based on 3 key points has clear connections to their commercial and growth agenda:

Self-reliance and local engagement
The introduction of ‘Choice into Social Care’ was hugely disruptive.  From the early stages of the UK’s Person Centred Care they saw a responsibility to support all players through a change process.

• Clients and families;
• Staff and where appropriate their families;
• The regulator- significant national and local interaction about the regulators need to change;
• The local community (through education, engagement and information).

 
Talent, Training and Enablement
To change the face of Aged Care you must change the face of the Carer:

• Find the right ones and empower them. Know what you want in staff and what staff need to deliver services. Caregivers are the life blood of your business.
• Build-in additional touch points with staff.
• Finding quality people is hard; keeping them is harder.

 
Education
The Home Instead Institute was created to provide training to theirs’ and competitors’ staff, as well as the public. Through education operational standards are lifted, the value of Social Care is elevated in the community, which attracts new talent to the sector.

• Enable caregivers
• Career paths clarified / identified for all learners
• Community engagement /change the perception of a career in Care

​As an example of Community Engagement, 40,000 people from a variety of backgrounds - retail/business/banking/government - received free dementia training.

Home Instead is a successful business with low staff turnover and a strong reputation for service, quality and compliance. Whilst a franchise model obviously encourages local management and responsibility the central theme of CDC, putting the client at the heart of decision making, requires empowered staff at the front line, dealing with client needs, engaging with and drawing staff from the local community.