Case study:

11 May 2010

Consultation on staff development needs in NHS West Midlands Workforce Deanery

Key points

NHS West Midlands Workforce Deanery has conducted a wide-ranging consultation to establish the key development needs of everyone involved in end of life care.

The Workforce Deanery invited end of life care leads, teams, commissioners and providers across the West Midlands to comment on the common core principles and competences for staff working with people at the end of life, developed by Skills for Care and Skills for Health.

The project seeks to establish the key workforce development needs and how they could best be met. It also aims to develop a joint understanding of how the draft core principles and competences for end of life care relate to all settings and situations.

The extensive consultation included seven workshops working with over 50 contributors from across health and social care organisations. This was followed by a summary event to give a wider audience the chance to have its say.

There was widespread backing for a health and social care network of end of life care ‘champions’ across the West Midlands who could share resources and offer support in the development of end of life best practice. A workforce collaborative group has now been established.

Participants also welcomed the fact the end of life principles and competences would help underpin high quality training and education for the whole workforce.

The consultation findings are now being used for:

Mapping end of life care knowledge and understanding to curriculum content in undergraduate, postgraduate and non-accredited education and training programmes

Designing new programmes for all staff involved in some form of end of life care

Informing commissioners of what end of life care training already exists, identifying the skills gaps and ensuring training is offered to the whole workforce.

It is hoped closer partnership working will also help address such issues as how to care for vulnerable people with specialised communication needs and working with people who do not have English as their first language.