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The purpose of this paper is to identify and review the leadership challenges in workforce planning, paying special reference to adult social care primarily in England (UK) whilst raising leadership issues that have international resonance.

This is a viewpoint which presents a distillation of key issues, challenges and relevant literature spanning workforce planning, human resources and social care.

The paper finds that growing demands on services, rising expectations for personalised care and support, together with the provision of safe and effective joined up care are some of the key drivers facing social care and wider public services. Leaders need to ensure a robust data and evidence base, sound interpretation of intelligence as well as building integrated approaches to workforce planning both within and between services.

Workforce leadership provides the bedrock to ensuring social care builds the workforce required for the future. As services undergo redesign and transformation the workforce planning task is more important now than ever and is a key responsibility for every organisation's leadership, including chief executives, commissioners and workforce specialists.

Workforce planning in social care is afforded relatively little attention and the analysis presented in this paper provides the stimulus for debate.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on long-standing, structural race inequality in Britain. This paper aims to review historic patterns of ethnic diversity among the workforce employed in services for older people to present some of the lessons that can be learned from the pandemic.

A historical overview was undertaken of research about ethnic diversity in the social care workforce.

Too often, the ethnic diversity of the social care workforce has been taken as evidence that structural racial inequalities do not exist. Early evidence about the impact of coronavirus on workers from black and minority ethnic groups has led to initiatives aimed at reducing risk among social care employers in the independent sector and in local government. This offers a blueprint for further initiatives aimed at reducing ethnic inequalities and promoting ethnic diversity among the workforce supporting older people.

The increasing ethnic diversity of the older population and the UK labour force highlights the importance of efforts to address what is effective in reducing ethnic inequalities and what works in improving ethnic diversity within the social care workforce and among those using social care services for older people.

The ethnic makeup of the workforce reflects a complex reality based on multiple factors, including historical patterns of migration and gender and ethnic inequalities in the UK labour market.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the implications of the increasing use of Assisted Living Technology in the social care sector and to assess the implications for the workforce in terms of job roles, skills, knowledge, training, and support.

A mixed methods approach was used, through a quantitative electronic survey of staff working in social care (as well as some health care) organisations in England, and three qualitative case studies of local authorities.

The research shows that the organisations involved in delivering Assisted Living Technology, the types of Assisted Living Technology being introduced, and the way in which it is being delivered, have implications for job roles and the skills and knowledge needed by staff. The associated training and workforce development similarly varies across the social care sector; it is ad hoc, disparate, and provided primarily by individual employers or by suppliers and manufacturers.

There is a need for a standardised Assisted Living Technology workforce development approach which can be used across the social care sector.

The varied nature of Assisted Living Technology providers and delivery models presents a challenge to the development and implementation of a standardised programme of workforce development.

This paper presents the results of new empirical research arising from a quantitative and qualitative study of the workforce development implications of Assisted Living Technology in the English social care sector.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issues relating to getting the right health and social care staff with the right skills in the right place at the right time and at the right price.

Key points arising from several master-classes with health and social care managers, supported by a literature review, generated remarkable insights into health and social care workforce planning and development (WP&D).

Flawed methods and overwhelming data are major barriers to health and social care WP&D. Inefficient and ineffective WP&D policy and practice, therefore, may lead to inappropriate care teams, which in turn lead to sub-optimal and costly health and social care. Increasing health and social care demand and service re-design, as the population grows and ages, and services move from hospital to community, means that workforce planners face several challenges. Issues that drive and restrain their health and social care WP&D efforts are lucid and compelling, which leave planners in no doubt what is expected if they are to succeed and health and social care is to develop. One main barrier they face is that although WP&D definitions and models in the literature are logical, clear and effective, they are imperfect, so planners do not always have comprehensive tools or data to help them determine the ideal workforce. They face other barriers. First, WP&D can be fragmented and uni-disciplinary when modern health and social care is integrating. Second, recruitment and retention problems can easily stymie planners’ best endeavours because the people that services need (i.e. staff with the right skills), even if they exist, are not evenly distributed throughout the country.

This paper underlines triangulated workforce demand and supply methods (described in the paper), which help planners to equalise workloads among disparate groups and isolated practitioners – an important job satisfaction and staff retention issue. Regular and systematic workforce reviews help planners to justify their staffing establishments; it seems vital, therefore, that they have robust methods and supporting data at their fingertips.

This paper stock-takes the latest health and social care workforce planning and development issues.

The purpose of this paper is to stimulate a wider debate around the coordination of workforce planning in non-statutory services (in this case, specialist housing for older people or those with long-term health and social care needs, such as learning disabilities). The authors argue that current NHS reforms do not go far enough in that they fail to include specialist housing and its workforce in integration, and by doing so, will be unable to optimise the potential efficiencies and streamlining of service delivery to this group.

The paper used exploratory study using existing research and data, enhanced by documentary analysis from industry bodies, regulators and policy think tanks.

That to achieve the greatest operational and fiscal impact upon the health care services, priority must be given to improving the efficiency and coordination of services to older people and those requiring nursing homes or registered care across the public and third sectors through the integration of service delivery and workforce planning.

Whilst generalisable and achievable, the model proposed within the paper cannot be fully tested theoretically and requires further testing the in real health and social care market to evidence its practicality, improved quality of care and financial benefits.

The paper highlights some potential limitations to the current NHS reforms: by integrating non-statutory services, planned efficiency savings may be optimised and service delivery improved.

NHS reforms in England led to the establishment of Local Education and Training Board (LETBs) to ensure the future supply of staff. LETBs have an important role in addressing health and social care integration. This paper aims to stimulate debate, ideas and opportunities to improve integrated workforce planning, practice and policy.

This is a thought leadership article which presents a distillation of key policy and strategy, drawing out implications for policy makers and workforce planners at a strategic level.

The paper describes and critically appraises the role of LETBs in supporting integration between health and social care. The key messages include: ensure social care and public health representation on the board, track education and training decisions against commissioning priorities, focus on outcomes and transition points, build health‐related skills in social care, support providers and use performance measures of integration.

LETBs need to demonstrate an open and transparent approach to workforce education and planning. All partners need to engage including social care and public health service commissioners and providers.

There is a substantial body of literature on integration, although much less is devoted to examining workforce. This article will be of particular interest to LETB leaders, those responsible for reviewing and assessing the performance of LETBs as well as social care leaders and workforce planners. In addition the article will be of interest to those supporting integrated workforce planning and development across the UK and internationally.

Providing housing with care may seem to be integration at its best. This paper investigates the workforce implications of this form of provision with a focus on older people with high support needs.

Addressing recruitment and retention problems in the health and social care workforce is now a key priority. However, there are shortages in some key staff groups, for example, nursing and social workers. Efforts to address these problems have focused primarily on boosting staff numbers, but in order really to address these issues for the long term, we need to think more radically about how the health and social care workforce is configured.

The NHS needs to adapt as never before to maintain and plan for an integrated and sustainable multi-professional workforce, spanning all health and care sectors. This cannot happen without system leaders embracing workforce transformation at scale and enabling system-wide collaboration and support for multi-professional learning and role development. “By learning together, we learn how to work together”. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The case studies included in this paper provide evidence of the ability of NHS systems to adopt integrated workforce models at scale. The case studies were chosen to demonstrate how system-wide change is possible, but still requires a partnership approach to innovation, strategic workforce planning and commissioner support for new models of care.

With partnership working between arm’s length bodies, commissioners, educators and workforce planners, the NHS is more than capable of generating a transformed workforce; a workforce able to continue providing safe, effective and joined-up person-centred care.

The focus of this paper is integrated workforce development undertaken by Health Education England from 2017 to the date of drafting. The case studies within this paper relate to England only and are a cross-section chosen by the authors as a representative of Health Education England activity.

The NHS needs to find ways to use the wider health and care workforce to manage an ever-increasing and diverse patient population. Silo working, traditional models of workforce planning and commissioning no longer provide an appropriate response to increasing patient need and complexity.

The evolution of the NHS into a joined-up, integrated health and social care workforce is essential to meet the aspirations of national policy and local workforce need – to centre care holistically on the needs of patients and populations and blur the boundaries between primary and secondary care; health and social care; physical and mental health.

This paper contains Health Education England project work and outcomes which are original and as yet unpublished.

This article highlights important points raised in a keynote speech delivered at the Guardian's Managing New Realities conference on 22nd March 2006. It draws particularly on the New Types of Worker project created by Skills for Care, and emphasises the need for local leadership to overcome the barriers to collaboration that are likely to prevent emergence of a remodelled workforce in practice, which is seen as central to effective implementation of the White Paper.The article underlines the need for:• a national coherent framework setting out the pathway to realising the visions set out by the White Paper• a local framework to deliver primary social care, with the primary care trusts and local government working as one• a common set of cultural values throughout health and social care• clear and agreed funding arrangements, along with a workforce development programme to keep pace with changing service requirements• public support for change, to achieve a seamless service without the gaps that lead to tragedy.It is through addressing these challenges to primary health and social care that the remodelling of the workforce will come about.