South West

About the region

The South West has a population of just over 5 million with the highest percentage of people of retirement age and above in England. It has a higher than average employment rate. Around 12% of registered health and medical workers live in the South West.

Devon

The region has good educational links with the University of Bristol and the Peninsula Medical School offering dental and medical, allied health professional and nursing degree courses. It also has nine Centres of Excellence in Teaching and Learning including the initiative “Placement Learning in Health and Social Care” at Plymouth University. The University of the West of England offers a range of health programmes including nursing degrees and many AHP courses.

Projects

Skills for Health is involved in:

  • One European Working Time Directive pilot site looking at cooperative solutions, team working and 24/7 care
  • Working with West Dorset Health Community on a pilot to create a clinical decision unit and adopt new ways of working to reduce the waiting time for assessment and treatment
  • Higher Education Demonstrator site at Plymouth University
  • Working with the Strategic Health Authorities (SHA) on widening participation
  • Piloting blended learning approaches to leadership and management development for staff in bands 1-4
  • Investigating demand in the South West for apprenticeships in the Voluntary sector
  • Supporting Health Tec, a simulation unit based in Plymouth, which will enable all learners - including those studying for the 14-19 diploma – to experience the excitement and challenges which can be experienced in this sector
  • Dyslexia Action – a series of workshops aimed to raise awareness of Dyslexia within the workspace, click here for details
  • Report into the impact of creative therapeutic interventions.

Sector Skills Agreement

This was agreed by the Employer Council on 19th June 2008 and will address the following key issues:

  • Key issue 1: Improving access and recruitment to long term careers in healthcare
  • Key issue 2: Raising the skills base of the current and future workforce
  • Key issue 3: Supporting innovative and responsive education, training and development
  • Key issue 4: Increasing workforce flexibility to improve service delivery
  • Key issue 5: Providing intelligence to inform workforce planning; to be reviewed at the next meeting
  • Key issue 6: Evaluation of impact of the SSA.

Click here to read the full SSA (pdf).

Key facts

  • More than 3,000 registered charities with activities in health and well being
  • Approximately 130 independent organisations registered with the Healthcare Commission equating to 7% of the English total
  • A high proportion of female workers and the highest proportion of staff qualified to S/NVQ 2
  • The 14-19 Society, Health and Development Diploma will be provided by four consortiums in the region.

Labour Market Intelligence

To read the full Labour Market Intelligence report on the region click here.

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