Agenda item

[To receive a report on Staff Recruitment and Retention at the RWHT]. 

[Alan Duffel – Director of Workforce - RWHT to present report].

The Director of Workforce of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust presented a report on staff recruitment and retention.  It was clear that the supply of staff did not meet the current demand across all NHS Hospitals and the situation was not likely to change for the foreseeable future.  It was therefore important to maximise the supply, have excellent retention, make the workforce as productive as possible and finally develop the workforce to the needs of the Trust. 

The Director of Workforce commented that the Trust had held one stop recruitment sessions to help with recruitment.  They had also engaged with the Armed Forces.  At the beginning of the next financial year, they would be embarking on an international recruitment initiative.  He had spoken recently with Brendan Clifford (Service Director Health) at the Council to determine what the Council could do to assist getting younger people into the health workforce. 

The Director of Workforce stated that retention was one of the biggest national issues being faced by Human Resources in the NHS.  There were a whole range of initiatives taking place on flexible working to improve staff retention rates.  Ideas such as rotating staff around departments were being explored, to prevent people leaving areas which were perceived as a more challenging environment.  An electronic rostering system had seen great success and was being introduced into more areas within the Trust.  The approval of the e-job planning business case, would provide a greater organisational understanding of consultant job plans. 

The Director of Workforce remarked that the Trust had recently approved the first year of the new Nursing apprenticeship programme, in addition to progressing the nursing clinical fellows.  The Trust was also piloting the new band four Nurse Associate role.  In addition to Nursing Apprenticeships the Trust continued to make wider use of the apprenticeship mechanism, in line with the recently approved Apprentice Approach, which saw apprentices as a way of developing individuals and opening up opportunities to local people to work within the health sector.  The expansion of the apprentice programme would also help towards establishing a career development pipeline.     

The Director of Workforce stated that the Trust had seen a continuous improvement in reducing the overall vacancy rate to a position where it was currently below 7%.  They were outperforming other NHS Trusts of similar size.  They wanted to keep their staff turnover rate to as low as possible, they actively measured their retention rate and were meeting their internal target.  They regularly reported the total net starters and leavers figures.  He was pleased to report that they had a greater number of starters than leavers.  The Trust were looking to increase their bank staffing levels as there would always be a need to have access to temporary staffing.  The Trust in progressing their focus on workforce efficiency and productivity, were routinely reporting on the avoidance of unused hours and the ability of the Trust to ensure shift rotas were established six weeks in advance.

In response to a question from a Member, the Chief Executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust responded that he had not used any nursing agency staff since 2005, as he was unable to ensure the level of quality.  There were also no locum doctors in medicine employed by the Trust.  He was particularly pleased with the employment of Clinical Fellows, which were saving the Trust £2.7 million, than if he had used agency staff.   He was of the view that happy staff led to high quality of care.

A Member of the Panel asked for an update on Vertical Integration (VI).  The Chief Executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust responded that he was pleased with the progress that had been made.  An area which needed improvement was the last 12 months of life.  Meaningful discussions were needed with Nursing Homes.  He had the idea of using the Trust’s transplant nurses to have sensitive conversations with relatives at the Nursing Homes. 

The Chair of Healthwatch praised the Trust for their work in the achievement of getting the vacancy rate down to below 7%. 

The Director of Adult Services asked what planning and risk assessment the Trust had undertaken for Brexit and potentially a no deal Brexit.  He also stressed the importance of the Trust working together with the Council’s Social Care Department as they were effectively in competition with each for nursing staff.  He was very happy to have an open dialogue with the Trust on staffing issues.  The Director of Workforce responded that the numbers of staff which Brexit impacted on was not significant.  The overseas recruitment by the Trust was mainly international.  The Trust were not massively reliant on employment from the wider European Union.  They had written to all of their staff explaining the mechanism for the settled status scheme.   They had also set up some general workshops.  The Chief Executive of the Trust stated that the Trust had a vested interest in working with the Council to ensure the nursing homes were appropriately staffed as they could not afford for them to fail. 

The Consultant in Public Health offered to facilitate the sharing of some information on the Adult Education Sector with the Director of Workforce at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.  There were a few thousand young people coming through this channel who would probably not go onto University to become Doctors or Nurses, but from an inclusive growth point, there would be a good cohort who had the potential to enter the Health Sector in a staffing job.  The Director of Workforce responded favourably to the idea.