Workforce planning and development 2020

Reflections on the work of the Workforce Planning and Development workstream in 2020.

Like everyone we have had to adapt in this extraordinary year and I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the workstream for their hard work, patience and above all adaptability this year.

The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) group has delivered an amazing programme this year, with more to come in the Spring. From “library carpentry” and further workshops to develop your scanning and synthesising skills.

The third cohort of our senior leadership development programme had a virtual kick off in October and the eight participants are well on their way. With support from Maggie Woods at Health Education England (HEE) Tracey Pratchett has turned our former face to face programme of workshops into a 19 module programmes.

Gil Young has been working with Jo Cornish at Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) as part of a cross-sectoral working group setting up a Trailblazer group for a level 6/7 apprenticeship in library, information sciences and knowledge management. Gil has also been our key link into Manchester Metropolitans’ Department of Languages, Information and Communications working on the next iteration of the health libraries elective module that ran last year – this needs something of a rethink to fit in with the University’s new style of teaching.

To learn more, we recommend learning about:

• Health Education England’s digital skills self-assessment tool which will be rolled out to the whole NHS workforce in England
• the library carpentry programme, which provides an opportunity for participants to deepen their skills in understanding software development and data science

You may know that I am retiring in March 2021, and already starting to focus on the things that need sorting, filing and handing on. We have a new Chair for the Workforce Planning and Development workstream as I have handed on the baton to Dominic Gilroy. Dominic is now taking the lead responsibility for this workstream. I wish him and all of you every success.