Cluster working: Planning support and resources

Workforce planning

Health Education Improvement Wales (HEIW) is the strategic workforce body for NHS Wales. As a Special Health Authority, we have a unique contribution to make in addressing strategic and specialist workforce issues, making Wales a great place to train and work for our health and care staff and maximising the contribution of all professions and occupations through our statutory functions.

The Strategic Workforce Plan for Primary Care was developed by HEIW and the Strategic Programme for Primary Care (SPPC), in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders. The aim of the plan is to develop sustainable workforce models that support the ambition of A Healthier Wales and the Primary Care Model for Wales. The plan identifies twenty-six key actions to be delivered over a 5-year period which are aligned with the themes of the Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy.

The Data and Analytics Portal provides access to all HEIW self-service dashboards along with information on how to log specific requests.  The site also contains links to useful information and guidance. Due to the nature of some reports, staff may need to be given specific access. 

HEIW resources include:

• Primary care cluster workforce planning tool that provides a step-by-step approach to workforce planning in primary care provides a simplified methodology for practices and clusters to use to create their workforce plans.
• Primary and Community Care Compendium of Roles and Models is a collection of case studies from across Wales showcasing a range of skills being optimised in Primary and Community Care to meet local population needs. Each entry demonstrates the contribution and value of non-traditional workforce roles and models in improving and facilitating integrated team development and encourages more informed workforce planning decisions.
• The Primary Care homepage holds information about training placements, Primary Care Academies, multi-professional training, and Continual professional development (CPD) training opportunities.
• The Workforce homepage contains a menu of workforce planning, development and strategy resources. 
• The NHS Careers homepage provides a dropdown menu of a number of NHS roles, with the side navigation panel on this page containing links to more general NHS and social care career information.
• Careersville is a free-to-use web based platform available for learners, teachers, parents or guardians, and careers advisors. The site showcases a wide range of careers opportunities available across health and social care in Wales via an interactive virtual village.

Leadership development

The Royal College of GPs have developed dedicated webpages and resources to help develop leadership capabilities in a range of topics including:

• Starting your leadership Journey
• Leadership in practice
• NHS systems leadership
• Networking
• Leadership programmes
• Beyond the GP: a team approach to patient care
• Overcoming barriers to leadership
• Capabilities framework

Gwella is the leadership Portal managed by the Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) Culture Leadership and Succession Team. The platform is accessible to everyone within the health and social care in Wales and provides access to variety of resources including books, publications, podcasts, and articles relevant to leadership and management.

The King’s fund Leadership and organisational development programme, provides expertise and training courses to support people, leaders and teams in the health and care system.

The NHS Leadership Academy Learning hub, hosts a variety of learning options including bitesize learning courses, inspiration library and learning spaces.

Resources and templates

Cluster handbooks

The cluster handbooks provide guidance on all aspects of cluster working. You can access the cluster working handbooks in our further information pages.

Strategic Programme for Primary Care

• The Accelerated Cluster Development (ACD) Toolkit is a collection of information and adaptable resources for stakeholders who will be supporting and driving forward the implementation of the ACD programme including Primary Care teams, Professional Collaboratives, Clusters and Pan Cluster Planning Groups.
• The Community Infrastructure (CI) Toolkit is a collection of information, and resources, designed for anyone (inclusive of profession, area, or level of practice) supporting the delivery of place-based care, regardless of setting.
• The Urgent Primary Care Centres (UPCC) toolkit is a collection of information and resources for stakeholders who may be supporting and driving forward the Urgent Primary Care Centres or for colleagues who have an interest in the work being carried out.
• Project management resources are available to support cluster working.
• A cluster annual plan template in Excel
• A cluster annual plan template in Word 
• A Primary care cluster IMTP template is available to support clusters develop their IMTP.

Business case development

The combination of data describing unmet needs, evidence for remedial action, alignment to existing strategic direction, and proposal for prioritisation may be captured within an outline business case to support formal decision making.

• Cluster business case templates – Under development 

Information Governance

The Information Governance website aims to provide guidance and resources to organisations across NHS Wales in developing their Information Governance (IG) processes in line with current legislation, national IG standards and best practice and to support them in completing the Welsh Information Governance Toolkit.

Clinical Governance Practice Self-Assessment Toolkit

The Clinical Governance Practice Self-Assessment Toolkit (CGPSAT) applies to all General Practices in Wales, which includes all General Medical Services Contractors (GMS), Alternative Providers of Medical Services (APMS) Practices and GP (General Practitioner) practices managed by Health Boards.

Financial stipulations and support

Clusters will need to be mindful of the need to comply with legal requirements and demonstrate due diligence with regard to procurement processes:

• NHS Finance (Wales) Act 2014: Cluster Governance: A Guide to Good Practice covers the aim, purpose and benefits of the NHS Finance (Wales) Act, 2014 (Appendix 13).
• Shared Services Partnership provide primary care advice on contract management, reimbursement, post payment verification and information services for GPs, community pharmacies, dentists, opticians, and appliance contractors who provide services to the NHS in Wales.

Training resources

Opportunities to develop in-house planning capability and capacity may be sought. National resources include:

• Shared Services have developed a Planning Programme for Learning, to strengthen planning skills, with good liaison between the NHS Wales planning community and Welsh Government. It encompasses a Diploma in Healthcare Planning, workshops, master classes, and learning events.
• ​Social Care Wales have a planning and promoting learning resources, including insights into planning, commissioning and co-production under the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and a population assessment toolkit and a toolkit supporting Regional Partnership Boards (RPBs) to devise Area Plans.
• Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW): Resources to integrate and grow expertise and capability in planning, developing, shaping, and supporting the health workforce.
• Academi Wales: A range of learning resources, courses and events and networks aimed at leaders and managers.
• Welsh NHS Confederation: Topics (e.g. finance, population health, etc.), networks, leadership support, publications, events, and news.