Our Aims
After a memorandum of understanding was signed in July 2016 by Health Education England Kent Surrey and Sussex (HEEKSS) and West Kent CCG (WKCCG), the West Kent Education Network (WKEN) was established as a Community Education Provider Network.
Purpose
The WKEN operations group is established to combine local and national objectives in the development of the local workforce that ensures the right people with the right skills in the right numbers are developed for the benefit of the people accessing health and social care services in West Kent.
We are fortunate to have a wide variety of staff to work with and it is important that we focus our efforts in the most effective and beneficial manner possible. The following areas are those in which we feel WKEN will have the most impact:
WKEN will work in conjunction with our local organisations to develop education programmes, projects, placements and opportunities all with the aim of encouraging a rewarding and lasting career in Primary and Community care in West Kent. We are a not-for-profit organisation, here purely to support, value and grow our consortium of highly talented colleagues.
Our project plan for 2019-2020
| PROJECT PLANS 2019/20 | ||
| Objective | Develop Systems Leaders & Encourage Culture Change | |
| Promoting Kent and Medway | GP and Primary Care recruitment campaign | There are shortages of GPs across all areas of Kent and Medway. Individual practices are recruiting individually with limited success. There are also challenges with other primary care roles, particularly practice nurses. There is not a consistent interface between promotion of GP roles between the LMC website and Take a Different View website with the potential of losing potential candidates. |
| Promoting Kent and Medway | Portfolio careers- Identify GPSi or Advanced practitioner roles and provide training and assessment | Kings Fund Partnership review found that newly qualified GPs would like alternative and flexible careers, with development and specialist opportunities There is anecdotal evidence that this would be attractive to current GPs and practitioners and would align to the developing service needs This would be also be used across the career pathway as a retention tool for primary care clinicians |
| Promoting Kent and Medway | Locum Bank | Locums are booked individually by practice. An introduction of a K&M bank or bank approach would improve transparency and enable setting of locum rate ranges to support sustainability of practices. This builds on the Medway model. |
| Maximise Supply of Health & Social Care Workforce | Support training hubs to increase multi-professional placements | There is some evidence from the National Clinical Pharmacist programme, and additionally anecdotal feedback locally, that Clinical Pharmacists new to Primary Care feel isolated both within General Practice, but also from colleagues in Community Pharmacy |
| Maximise Supply of Health & Social Care Workforce | Support training hubs to increase multi-professional placements | Anecdotal evidence highlights that Paramedic Practitioners feel isolated in Primary Care, with a different way of working and lack of peer support. |
| Maximise Supply of Health & Social Care Workforce | Workflow optimisation at scale | Workload is identified as a key issue particularly due to the shortages of GPs. New roles and ways of working have been identified to release clinical workload |
| Maximise Supply of Health & Social Care Workforce | Nurse Associate Programme | There is a need to develop the nursing workforce and ensure that there is variety of skills that meet demand. |
| Maximise Supply of Health & Social Care Workforce | Care navigation training and social prescribing | Care navigation is identified as a key role in ensuring that demand is appropriately managed and patients/citizens can access the correct services as part of the local care model |
| Create Lifelong Careers in Health & Social Care | Promote careers in Primary Care in Kent & Medway through careers events, webinars, school engagement, Princes Trust | There is local activity being undertaken to promote careers. This could be maximised and made more efficient by a consistent approach locally delivered. In addition, placements have not been available for those under 18. |
| Create Lifelong Careers in Health & Social Care | Career Counselling and Mentoring for ST2/3 | Approximately only 40% of GP Trainees undertaking placements in Kent and Medway take substantive employment in the area. As part of attraction offer, WKEN will offer training for GPs to provide one to one carer counselling to ST2/3s that undertake placements in West Kent |
| Develop Systems Leaders & Encourage Culture Change | First Five – New to Practice Group | Feedback from Attraction Offer Task and Finish Group and consultation in East Kent indicates that GPs and Practice Nurses that are new to practice feel isolated. |
| Develop Systems Leaders & Encourage Culture Change | Mid Career- Mentoring & Leadership for Mid Career | Mid career GPs seeking early retirement due to pressure in general practice. Alternative careers and flexible working will retain mid career GPs with reduced clinical hours |
| Develop Systems Leaders & Encourage Culture Change | Last Five- Pre retirement coaching and mentoring | National and local evidence shows many GPs are considering retirement due to workload. Kent and Medway have higher than national average of GPs over 55. |
| Develop Systems Leaders & Encourage Culture Change | OD support to PCNs | System Transformation to integrated Local Care Teams requires culture change to work as one team around the patient. This requires OD input to ensure teams work across professional and organisational boundaries, fully integrated in the designated PCN geographical area. |
| Develop Systems Leaders & Encourage Culture Change | PCN Leadership development for Clinical Directors, Nursing Cluster leads and Practice Manager leads | New roles within PCNs for Clinical Cluster Leads requires new development and skill set for this group |
| Develop Systems Leaders & Encourage Culture Change | PCN Leadership development for Clinical Directors, Nursing Cluster leads and Practice Manager leads | New roles within PCNs for Practice Nurse Cluster Leads requires new development and skill set for this group |
| Develop Systems Leaders & Encourage Culture Change | PCN Leadership development for Clinical Directors, Nursing Cluster leads and Practice Manager leads | There is no Kent and Medway offer for Practice Managers, and this cohort are often recruited from external sectors, and require support to manoeuvre the NHS system particularly during system transformation |
| Develop Systems Leaders & Encourage Culture Change | Implement and facilitate Practice Nurse Conference across left footprint | Lead Nurse across Left Footprint escalated need for professional development and networking opportunities to support Practice Nurses. |
| Improve Workforce Wellbeing, Inclusion & Workload to Increase Retention | Practice manager programmes | New roles within PCNs for Practice Manager Cluster Leads requires workforce succession and development |
| Improve Workforce Wellbeing, Inclusion & Workload to Increase Retention | Care Home training programme | There are a high number of preventable hospital admissions for residents of care homes. Training for care home staff will provide, knowledge, skills and confidence to prevent admissions and improve quality of life for their residents. |
| Improve Workforce Wellbeing, Inclusion & Workload to Increase Retention | Upskill current workforce by responding to funding and development requests | Clinicians within Primary Care require clinical training and updates in line with Professional regulations, including 10 pont plan for Nursing |
Our Results
The effectiveness of WKEN will be evident through the quality of training given, the responsiveness of the group to training needs, the retention of those who have received the training and the ongoing provision of innovative high quality, responsive and accessible health services.
