Better Careers for Better Care Key Messages
- NWADASS, in partnership with SCIE, have secured two years of funding from the Rayne Foundation to deliver Better Careers for Better Care, a North West programme helping adult social care organisations improve how they support, develop and retain their workforce.
- It will create practical opportunities to learn, test and implement new ways of working, especially blended roles in homecare, so we can improve care worker experience and drive lasting system-wide change.
- The funding will enable NWADASS, in partnership with SCIE, to go further, faster in its journey to develop a learning culture for the North West that supports workforce transformation in Adult Social Care.
- If you work in the North West adult social care system there are lots of ways to get involved and benefit from the learning and testing activity that will be happening. Email Andrew.Burridge-nwadass@wigan.gov.uk to get involved.
What is Better Careers for Better Care?
- The Better Careers for Better Care programme builds on our blueprint methodology and the learning about blended roles in Tameside, the launch of the Workforce Collective and testing of new ways of working like learning circles, imagineering labs and test and learn groups. It also aligns with the regional workforce priorities identified by our members following the publication of the national adults social care workforce strategy.
- It continues our work to test pioneering theories of change and to unlock the “secrets of success” for implementing workforce transformation in adult social care systems more effectively and more efficiently
- We have secured funding for 2 years and aim to develop a participative model that creates a pipeline of innovation from awareness through learning to implementation and ultimately, system change.
- Better Careers for Better Care will focus on 3 key things:
- Improving care worker experience, capability and career development
- Supporting organisations to adopt and sustain innovation (especially blended roles)
- Building regional capability for learning, change and improvement
- It is bold and aspirational, focusing on building understanding and capacity to affect complex system and culture change in adult social care through a primary focus on how to ensure blended roles deliver better outcomes for people, workers and systems
- We are testing the unique value we believe regional collaboration brings in developing improvement capacity that individual organisations cannot achieve alone
What is different and why should I get involved?
- Improving the experience of care workers is at the heart of Better Careers for Better Care because this is what we believe will deliver better care and attract more people to work in the sector
- The programme recognises that system and culture change is complex and multi-layered, capturing and sharing learning that transcends organisational boundaries
- Getting involved will help you to develop essential skills for career development understanding how best to improve the experience of care workers through a combination of workforce and system transformation
- We will work with you to test innovative theories that are at the cutting edge of change:
- Change happens primarily through people and relationships
- Sustainable change requires ideas and involvement at different levels across a system – from front line through to senior leadership
- The most impactful change agents share common characteristics that it is important to recognise and develop
- Involving care workers in learning and change processes generates more grounded, realistic transformation
- Enabling workforce development improves transformation results
- Organisations that build learning capability and culture deliver more successful innovation
- Securing the right enablers for one transformation programme is generative, enabling faster subsequent innovations to be delivered
- Peer learning and co-production accelerates change
- A combination of learning and implementation support delivers deeper change and scalable learning
How to get involved:
- There are three ways to get involved:
- Join our Community of Practice – we’ll create spaces to share the learning, disseminate what we discover and communicate about further opportunities.
- Apply to join our Learning and Development Programme to grow your skills, knowledge and confidence in workforce transformation. This is open to anyone working in the adult social care system in the North West including front line care staff. You will need to commit to participating in a 6 month development programme and have the support of your employer. We will codesign the programme with participants to maximise learning impact. Likely to run from January 2027.
- Sign up as an Implementer Site – if you are actively looking to implement blended roles in your place, and have the appropriate leadership buy-in to take this forward, we can support you with implementation. This will ensure you are able to draw on the learning of other places and have facilitated time, space and support to translate the learning into practice in your place.
Email Andrew.Burridge-nwadass@wigan.gov.uk and we’ll contact you with further information.
If successful, this programme will not just increase use of blended roles, or another transformer example, but demonstrate a replicable model for how systems learn, innovate and improve together.
