Alix Crawford is part of a team that has set up the North West Joint Improvement Partnership (JIP) to help local social care organisations and their partners work together more effectively.
Alix Crawford works for Skills for Care, a Sector Skills Council responsible for strategic workforce development for people working in adult social care.
Part of Alix’s job is participating in the North West Joint Improvement Partnership. This high-level partnership consists of a group of strategic organisations who work together to provide regional leadership that will facilitate the improvement and best value of care services and deliver social care policy. A JIP operates in each of the nine regions of England.
An important part of the North West JIP approach is the development of a One Plan initiative, which helps to make sure that organisations can work together properly to an agreed set of priorities for regional tier programmes.
“The initiative helps ensure efficiency and alignment of improvement support and policy implementation against agreed priorities, and avoids duplication among JIP partners here in the North West,” says Alix. “The JIP makes sure the right people are around the table and talking to each other.”
As a result, services in the region can offer greater choice, better early intervention and prevention services, improved efficiency and commissioning, and sharing of knowledge and best practice among organisations.
The North West JIP was set up two years ago and aims to ensure there is a consistent and aligned approach to work across all the sector, the development support offered in the One Plan helps organisations work together to implement policy, improve services and deliver them with the best possible value for money.
It includes a wide range of partner organisations including NHS North West, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, Primary Care Trusts Chief Executive Alliance, Housing Organisations, Department of Health North West, Skills for Care, the Care Quality Commission and others.
One of Skills for Care’s roles in the JIP is to look at how to better plan for a changing workforce and skills. For example, Skills for Care helps the local authorities across the region to develop their integrated local area workforce strategies.
This means looking at current and future workforce needs for all types of care staff in an area, including those working with health and other partner agencies. By working together with the JIP, Alix and Skills for Care are able to make sure that plans are in place to meet staffing needs across social care organisations.
Integrated local area workforce strategies aim to bring together finance and commissioning departments in Local Authorities, which really helps with efficient workforce planning.
“This wouldn’t have happened without the JIP, because Directors in the JIP gave backing and support. It’s when the senior players get involved that things happen,” says Alix.
“Being part of the JIP ensures relationships are built across different organisations, and a communications flow happens among them. This has led to collaborative and more efficient working in the area.”