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The Workforce Observatory

In collaboration with the West Yorkshire Integrated Care System (ICS).

The Workforce Observatory has been established through a University of Bradford, West Yorkshire Integrated Care System (ICS) collaboration. It aims to provide a forum to pool relevant intelligence so that the health and social care workforce can be analysed, planned, forecast, grown and developed in an evidence-informed manner. This will enable integrated system-wide workforce planning and development.

This is an interdisciplinary initiative involving academics from across the Faculty of Health Studies and the Faculty of Engineering and Informatics.

West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership logo

Meet the Workforce Observatory team

  • Professor Rebecca Randell
    Director of the Workforce Observatory, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford
  • Dr Mai Elshehaly
    Deputy Director of the Workforce Observatory, Faculty of Engineering and Informatics, University of Bradford
  • Dr Julie Prowse
    Research Fellow, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford
  • Dr Claire Sutton
    Research Associate, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford
  • Emma Eyers
    PhD Student, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford
  • Dr Lynn McVey
    Research Fellow, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford
  • Dr Natasha Alvarado
    Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford
  • Jane Montague
    Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford
  • Dr Muhammad Faisal
    Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford
  • Professor Daniel Neagu
    Faculty of Engineering and Informatics, University of Bradford
  • Chris Tissiman
    Manager, Leeds Health and Care Academy
  • Kate O’Connell
    Director, Leeds Health and Care Academy
  • Tina Lafferty
    Programme Manager, Health and Social Care Economic Partnership, Bradford City Council
  • Gaynor Clark
    Workforce Planning Lead, Health Education England
  • David Woodcock
    Leader of the Lay Research Group, University of Bradford

Workforce Observatory projects

Recruitment and Retention of Care Workers

In December 2021, in response to a request from the ICS, a rapid review of recruitment and retention of care workers was undertaken.

The review particularly looked for examples of how other areas had supported the recruitment and retention of care workers during the pandemic.  The identified examples demonstrate the benefit of recruitment at the system level, for example being able to recruit those who initially came forward for roles in healthcare settings, and partnership working, for example in collaboration with the Department for Work and Pensions.

 

The review also identifies variation in opportunities for training and career progression and the ways in which staff wellbeing was supported with larger organisations having greater resources for this purpose, again suggesting an area where a system-level approach could help to provide consistency.

View the Recruitment and Retention of Care Workers report

Scoping Review of Strategic Workforce Planning in Health and Social Care

To provide a solid basis for future work, a scoping review of strategic workforce planning in health and social care was undertaken, identifying the models and methods currently used for strategic workforce planning.

The review highlights the importance of moving to a demand-based and ideally a needs-based approach (which extends the demand-based approach to explore likely changes in population needs, for example by looking at the prevalence of risk factors) to strategic workforce planning, rather than focusing on supply.

While there are recognised frameworks for supporting strategic workforce planning such as Health Education England’s Star model and Skills for Health’s Six-Step Methodology these need to be combined with data and tools for understanding likely future demand.

View the Scoping Review of Strategic Workforce Planning in Health and Social Care report

Planning the Radiology Workforce for Cancer Diagnostics in West Yorkshire

The Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care (February 2022) has set lofty ambitions for cancer diagnosis. The radiology workforce is and will be pivotal in the provision of timely cancer diagnostics.

This review of West Yorkshire radiology services set out to understand the current and projected radiology workforce, the radiology workforce required in the region to deliver timely cancer diagnostics and the potential of digital technology to aid diagnostic radiology workforce efficiency.

The review found the current supply of the radiology workforce insufficient for service demand and this trend is likely to continue.

Whilst radiology workforce supply in West Yorkshire has been boosted by, for example, international recruitment and new roles such as reporting radiographers, such solutions are neither ‘quick’ nor ‘straightforward’.

Similarly, artificial intelligence, whilst it was identified as potentially reducing the volume of radiology services’ manual reading by, for example, automation, clinicians noted AI implementation in the region as piecemeal.  It was also noted whilst technology can improve service efficiency, human interaction is prized by patients and at the heart of compassionate healthcare.

View the Planning the Radiology Workforce for Cancer Diagnostics report

A Review of the Health and Social Care Digital Workforce in West Yorkshire

In March 2021, Health Education England published Data-Driven Healthcare in 2030: Transformation Requirements of the NHS Digital Technology and Health Informatics Workforce.

This predicts that for the NHS to realise its ambitions around digital transformation it will need a digital workforce of 78,000 staff members by 2030, a 69% increase compared to the number employed in 2020.

While the report focuses on the NHS requirements, given the move to Integrated Care Systems, there is also a need to understand the digital workforce requirements in social care. This review will seek to establish the current and projected health and social care digital workforce in West Yorkshire, with foci on the recruitment and retention of the region's health and social care digital workforce and the skill requirements of this workforce.

View the Recruitment and Retention of the Health and Social Care Digital Workforce: A Rapid Review report

Publications

Randell, R. (2021)
Recruitment and retention of care workers: A rapid review.
Report produced by the Workforce Observatory, University of Bradford on behalf of West Yorkshire Integrated Care System.  University of Bradford.

Prowse, J.M., Sutton, C. Eyers, E., Montague, J., Faisal, M., Neagu, D., Elshehaly, M. and Randell, R.  (2022)
A scoping review: Strategic workforce planning in health and social care.
Report produced by the Workforce Observatory, University of Bradford on behalf of West Yorkshire Integrated Care System. University of Bradford.

Prowse, J.M., Sutton, C., Faisal, M., Elshehaly, M. and Randell, R.  (2022)
Planning the radiology workforce for cancer diagnostics.
Report produced by the Workforce Observatory, University of Bradford on behalf of West Yorkshire Integrated Care System.  University of Bradford
Link to the project report: awaited.

Sutton, C., Prowse, J., McVey, L., Elshehaly, M., Neagu, D., Alvarado, N., Tissiman, C., O’Connell, K., Eyers, E., Faisal, M. and Randell, R.  (2022)
Strategic workforce planning in health and social care – an international perspective: A scoping review.
Review article submitted to Health Policy currently under review.