Workforce strategy

We worked with Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) to develop a first-ever workforce strategy across health and social care that can meet the future needs of people in Wales. This has now been launched.

Development of the strategy followed extensive consultation to gather a broad range of opinions and we would like to thank everyone for their support and contributions.

Annual report

Our annual report summarises the main areas of progress achieved in the second full year of the strategy.

Delivery plan

We have developed a delivery plan to support the ambition of the health and social care workforce strategy. The actions we're taking in 2022 to 2023 against each of the themes in the strategy can be seen in the plan.

If you would like more information about the workforce strategy, contact jon.day@socialcare.wales.

The strategic mental health workforce plan for health and social care is a joint plan between us and Health Education and Improvement Wales. Its purpose is to put the workforce strategy for health and social care’s aims for mental health services into action.

The plan has 33 actions. The actions support the development of a motivated, engaged and valued mental health workforce across health and social care, which can meet the needs of the people of Wales.

To create the plan, we talked to people in the sector, including:

• people who have lived experience of mental health
• employers
• trade unions
• professional bodies
• royal colleges
• government.

We listened to the people who provide our mental health services, to help us understand what’s important to them. We also looked at research, workforce data and forecasts for the future.

This plan is our way of bringing about change and improvements in how we develop, value and support our specialist mental health workforce, and recognise the important role they play.

We’ve developed a social work workforce plan to support A Healthier Wales: Our Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care. It explains how we’ll support the social work profession to address the challenges it currently faces, so that it can provide the best possible care and support to people.

We’ve written a direct care workforce plan to support A Healthier Wales: Our Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care. It explains what we’ll do to support direct care workers so they feel cared for, work in a compassionate and inclusive culture, and feel valued for their work.