About the region
The East of England is the second largest region in England. It covers the 6 counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk and the 4 Unitary Authorities of Luton, Peterborough, Southend-on-sea and Thurrock.
The health of the region’s population is similar to the national average but there are a number of areas of significant health inequality and social deprivation.
Patterns of disease are changing due to lifestyle changes and the increasing and changing demands of many older people with long term conditions.
The health sector workforce is large, employing approximately 6% of the total East of England workforce, 70% of health employers are small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
The workforce is ageing (East of England has the highest proportion of staff over 45 years) and over 250,000 vacancies will need to be filled over the next 10 years.
The Health Sector Skills Agreement for the East of England was launched in November 2007. It identified four key challenges for the next 10 years:-
- Widening sources of recruitment in the light of a shrinking workforce pool
- Ensuring staff stay in the sector by supporting their development and progress ‘through the ranks’
- Developing new roles and teams to meet changing demands
- Providing a more cost effective service.
Projects
Skills for Health is involved in:
- Regional Health Sector Skills Agreement (November 2007)
East of England is the first region to develop and launch a Health Sector Skills Agreement and an ambitious implementation programme is now underway to address the 4 key challenges described above
- West Essex Project (The Harlow Project) Final Report 2008
The West Essex health economy tested the Regional Sector Skills Agreement (SSA) in real life by developing and implementing a local skills plan. It brought together a wide range of organisations working in partnership. Click here to access the West Essex report
- The East of England Public Services Sector Skills Agreement
East of England was the first to develop a joint Health and Social Care Skills Strategy and it has now been extended to become a Public Services Skills strategy. It is an amalgamation of 6 sectors SSAs with a joint action plan to address common issues
- A linked Department of Health (DH) project is examining the links with local area agreements
- A Sector Skills Agreement ‘One Stop’ Support organisation
30 regional organisations are working together to develop the ‘one stop’ workforce development signposting association employers asked for. This major development will be launched during 2008
- Ambassador & Education Networks
A new region wide ‘ambassador’ scheme is being developed which will help young people to understand the range of careers available in health by talking with real practitioners in the classroom and via simulation events. The project will help support the implementation of new Diplomas and Apprenticeships
- Information Advice and Guidance (IAG)
Health and Education (the lifelong learning network) have teamed up to produce an integrated IAG service for the region. It will describe both career pathways and academic progression routes
- Good Practice Case Studies
An online good practice service drawing on case studies from across England is under development and will support the workforce development ‘one stop shop’
- Great Yarmouth & Waveney Project
Great Yarmouth and Waveney plans to provide training and development to achieve a competence based workforce and will start this major Skills for Health project in 2008
- New approaches to learning
A number of projects, including a national one to develop work based learning for nursing home staff in Suffolk and Norfolk, are seeking innovative approaches to learning
- Apprenticeship Pilot implementation
Apprenticeships are becoming a major source of recruitment for both young and mature workers and a multi organisation project is being led by Skills for Health and Aimhigher Healthcare Strand to provide development support to employers wanting to implement a scheme
- Migrant Workers
East of England has a high proportion of migrant workers and an investigation is underway to identify the specific issues faced by migrants working in the health sector.
The full Labour Market Intelligence report on this region will follow shortly.
