| 9 February 2024
The Strategic Mental Health Workforce Plan for health and social care (SMHWFP) developed by Health Education Improvement Wales (HEIW) and Social Care Wales, aims to develop skills and capacity across health and social care to increase support for those in need.
There is a requirement to identify and define impactful volunteering roles to help to inform workforce planning, education and training. Volunteers play an important part across the continuum of mental health services, but it can be difficult to quantify the need and evidence in workforce planning. The information gathered via this survey will enable better understanding of the contribution of volunteers and will build on other workstreams that are being progressed as part of the workforce strategy.
Skills for Health have been commissioned by Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) to gain insight and understanding of the roles within the sector and help address any gaps to inform how resources established through the plan are made available to the voluntary sector and to volunteers themselves.
HEIW has commissioned Skills for Health to work with them to:
- Raise the profile of voluntary sector organisations working in a mental health setting.
- To recognise and celebrate those who have made an enormous impact by volunteering and delivering voluntary services alongside our mental health workforce.
- Encourage closer partnership working between the voluntary and public sectors.
- Understand your current and future skills and knowledge gaps, to help shape roles, careers and training pathways to meet those needs.
We are seeking input through a wider public consultation to ensure that we reach a wide range of organisations and individuals working in the Voluntary Sector in Mental Health Services in Wales. This will take the form of an online survey, which is available in both English and Welsh. To access the English version of the survey please visit here. For the Welsh version, visit here.
The survey is now open and the deadline has been extended to midnight on Friday 8 March 2024 to offer additional time for those interested in participating.