Oxfordshire Social Care Partnership CIC

OSCP logo

Oxfordshire Social Care Partnership CIC (OSCP) is a new company formed to work in partnership with Oxfordshire County Council and the NHS to deliver a range of outcomes on behalf of the adult social care sector in Oxfordshire.

Initially OSCP will:

  • Support the recruitment and retention initiatives.
  • Supporting task and finish groups Participate in, support and where appropriate lead the next steps in task and finish groups linked to the actions agreed by the Oxfordshire health and care system. Specifically:
    • Recruitment campaigns and processes;
    • ‘Valuing staff’ and retention initiatives;
    • Homeshare and accommodation;
    • Skills and leadership development;
    • Career pathways.
  • Attraction, recruitment and retention lead and deliver:
    • Recruitment/OACP website developments (in partnership);
    • A programme of awareness raising for Job Centre Plus (JCP) staff;
    • Advice & guidance on social care careers and opportunities via various channels, including guidance on preparing for a job in care;
    • An iCare Ambassadors scheme in line with Skills for Care’s guidance and OCC’s requirements;
    • An annual awards scheme to recognise best practice by social care employers and paid workers;
    • Management information and workforce planning.
  • Improve the quality and availability of workforce data and management information to support workforce planning, by:
    • Working in partnership on regular workforce surveys, as required;
    • Improving Adult Social Care (ASC) Workforce Data Set (formerly NMDS-SC) response rates, including via provider events;
    • Identify, support, disseminate and celebrate workforce best practice & leadership;
    • Engaging employers / providers.
  • Work with OCC and partners to develop, agree and implement a communications and engagement plan to support the workforce programme.
  • Work with OCC to plan, manage and deliver workforce forum events for local employers.  Themes to be determined by agreement, covering both capability and capacity.
  • Work with OCC to engage care home providers, managers and staff to understand the workforce challenges in this part of the sector, particularly relating to recruiting and retaining care home nurses.
  • Values based approaches:
    • Work with OCC and Skills for Care to promote and encourage the use of Values Based Approaches (VBA), including through attending workshops, delivering communications on VBA and acting as an advocate for these approaches locally.
  • Career pathways Provide information for potential care candidates on career pathways. Develop and publicise information, links and resources to help this target group.
  • Work with providers, OCC, Skills for Care & health partners to explore how social care employers can create opportunities for career enrichment within existing career structures (e.g. opportunities for social care workers to develop their skills, knowledge and qualifications, take on new responsibilities and share their learning with others).
  • Major incidents, risks, system resilience and business continuity
    • Work with OCC and providers to develop and maintain business continuity planning to ensure a robust and resilient care system at a time of major incident.
    • Develop and test arrangements alongside OCC, as needed, to ensure the appropriate targeting of workforce at a time of major incident, provider failure, predicted risk or annual pressure.