Attain was appointed, following a competitive tender, to support the two trusts (Barnet, Enfield & Haringey NHS Trust and Camden & Islington FT) who were establishing increased collaboration as the North London Mental Health Partnership. We were commissioned to produce a research-based narrative to inform and support key assumptions of a robust three-year workforce plan. We were charged with developing a baseline of the current workforce across the Trusts, as well as providing a dashboard that included information on trends, workforce data, and national workforce initiatives that will impact on planning and recruitment of the future mental health workforce across the partnership.

What We did

In the creation of the workforce narrative and dashboard development, we engaged with stakeholders across the partnership to:

  • Identify external and internal factors impacting on the mental health workforce, for both clinical and non-clinical staff, supported by stakeholder engagement and analysis of data.

  • Pinpoint key challenges facing the partnership’s mental health workforce over the coming years.

  • Make recommendations on how to overcome these challenges.

  • Establish opportunities to innovate and utilise the workforce in a different way to ensure sustainability of the partnership workforce.

  • Develop a workforce dashboard to outline key characteristics of the entire workforce.

Outcomes

  • The workforce narrative was developed and signed off by the Executive team.

  • Key workforce challenges and opportunities were identified. These were aligned to supply, upskilling, defined roles, current ways of working, and leadership.

  • Recommendations were provided for interventions to impact on the future of the workforce.

  • The workforce dashboard provided a single version of the entire workforce across the partnership. This has informed where to focus future interventions to address significant workforce challenges.

  • The dashboard also served to dispel myths that had taken hold around the make-up of the workforce and significant characteristics.