The workforce capacity planning tool provides prompts and tips to analyse your workforce. Further to this it’s helpful to understand the number of registered social workers:
- which are functioning within a care management model and their impact on service delivery
- working in non-designated social work roles which utilise the professional skills of a social worker but do not have a protected title
- employed in the NHS, private and voluntary sector within your locality (What roles do they undertake and is there any connection across sectors / settings?)
- who actively engage with communities (How do they add value to the provision of local services?).
You may also want to refer to the following documents:
The Standards for employers of social workers in England cover the key areas that employers should address to maximise the effectiveness of their social workers. Skills for Care has developed resources to support workforce planning which further support employers to consider the needs and future capacity of their workforce.
To analyse the future capacity it is important to consider how other personnel can work effectively alongside them. It is particularly important to look at the roles of assistants and para-professionals to ensure their skills and knowledge are used appropriately and their role isn’t just a mechanism to reduce costs. We have been working on the development guidance for new roles in social care through workforce innovation.
The workforce capacity planning tool helps to analyse future workforce capacity. It includes questions which help to consider the extent to which an organisation has incorporated the PCF.
Further guidance includes:
- Recruitment, retention and career progression of social workers (June 2013)
- Supervision and workload management for social work
The workforce capacity planning resources provide general questions, prompts and tips to help you identify new activities, jobs and roles to be undertaken by social workers to meet the requirements of the Care Act.
It is important to consider what the implications for other non-social work qualified workers will be. Think about who and what can help you decide what roles your social workers can undertake. Is there anything to be gained from combining the knowledge and experience of social workers working in the local community and different settings/ sectors within your locality?
The College of Social Work has identified the roles and functions of social workers, and Social Work in Mental Health settings plus the business case for social work. Both of these reports will help you to identify ways of usefully deploying social workers.