Commissioner’s checklist – dementia services and workforce issues
Analyse
- Do the strategic plans take account of current and future needs for dementia services and consider the implication for service redesign and commissioning?
- Have you a clear vision around dementia services that has been developed through a fully inclusive and systematic engagement with people with dementia, carers, practitioners, providers and other stakeholders and enables them to consider needs and the actions, knowledge and skills to meet these needs?
- Have you mapped and reviewed local dementia services across agencies and completed a gap analysis around opportunities for improvement or change in provider market such as potential skill shortages, wasted resources?
- What resources and funding are available?
- Have you considered all policy and legal drivers
- Have you considered the local workforce market and where it may be possible to share workforce resources or work more collaboratively to reduce costs?
Plan
- Are you taking an outcomes based approach to commissioning dementia services?
- Are you clear around what is needed in terms of necessary actions to meet the defined outcomes across dementia care pathways within different settings?
- Do your service contracts specify the minimum competencies and educational training and development requirements in dementia care?
- For those individuals and families directly purchasing care (privately, using direct payments or personal budgets), is there information, advice and support arrangements in place to inform them about the competencies they should expect to meet particular needs in different settings?
- Have you considered new roles and ways of working within dementia services which may improve outcomes?
- How can you be assured that there is sustainable capacity and capability in the workforce of the dementia care providers you commission to deliver the required outcomes, and assure quality and safety and in future?
- What incentives are you using to encourage improvements to the dementia workforce and higher quality services?
- Is there a realistic timescale planned with a risk analysis to establish risks to delivery related to capacity and capability in workforce, and mitigation of these risks?
Do
- How do your dementia service providers improve their workforce through dementia education and learning approaches?
- How do your dementia service providers ensure the voice of people with dementia and carers are included in education and learning?
- Have you a method of collecting evidence from your providers to ensure they are meeting minimum dementia competencies
- Are you assured that the dementia care providers from which you commission are demonstrating continuous improvement within the workforce such as through the use of observational tools, supervision and appraisal, and continuing professional development
Review
- Do you have robust methods in place for monitoring contracts and performance to ensure dementia service outcomes, and standards of quality and safety are met, linked to workforce capacity and capability?
- Are you and the relevant workforce leads aware of useful workforce information offered by Higher Education for Dementia Network, Skills for Health, Skills for Care and support through the Regional Dementia Workforce Network?