The wider workforce, including the ARRs (Additional Roles Reimbursement scheme), plays a key role in implementing the Proactive Care Frameworks. Here we outline who the wider workforce is, why it is important to use them, and how you can make the most of having them in your team.
Each Frameworks suggests how members of the wider workforce, for example healthcare assistant, pharmacist etc, could deliver aspects of care.
Which roles make up the wider workforce?
Our definition of ‘wider workforce’ is any health professional who supports patients to mange their long-term conditions, but is not a doctor or a nurse. Primary care teams are increasingly made up of these more varied roles. They include, for example:
- care coordinators
- clinical pharmacist
- healthcare assistants
- health & wellbeing coaches
- social prescribing link workers
Why involve the wider workforce?
Utilising a wider workforce is part of the NHS Long Term Plan. As well as increasing capacity, delegating appropriate tasks to other members of the primary care team ensures GPs and nurses can focus on providing the high quality clinical care that they are trained to provide.
With appropriate training, the wider workforce have the skills and capacity to provide patients with other support they need such as:
- personalised care,
- education, self-management and behaviour change,
- addressing patients’ wider concerns and
- signposting to relevant clinical staff where necessary.
How to involve the wider workforce
You don’t need to have every member of the wider workforce in your team to take this approach. For example, if you only have a care coordinator but none of the other roles, you can still involve the team you do have by focusing on competencies rather than job roles. In this way, team members who lack some of the skills required can be trained to achieve the necessary competencies, avoiding the need to recruit to additional roles.
For recommended training see resources below.
Suggested resources
These resources can also support the implementation of CVDACTION.
- Training needs assessment
- Consultation guide
- Example of staffing and resourcing (PDF)
- Suggested essential training and education support for delivery of the frameworks
- Implementation workbooks
- Wider workforce webinar