1.2b. What successful practices are providers using to widen participation and create a more representative workforce?
Background
Improving the quality of education and care for children, young people and learners depends on a stable, skilled and supported workforce. Recruitment and retention continue to present significant challenges across all sectors. This is driven by factors such as low pay, high workloads, stress, pupil behaviour and negative perceptions of certain roles. High staff turnover rates and providers’ reliance on agency staff can undermine stability and impact care, learning and safeguarding. Addressing these issues requires strategies that attract qualified professionals, promote inclusion and provide robust training, development opportunities, and wellbeing support. It is essential to understand workforce mobility and diversity gaps in order to create evidence-based solutions that strengthen capability and ensure the workforce reflects the communities it serves. This ultimately improves outcomes for children, young people and learners.
Next steps
Get in touch with [email protected]
Topics
Research fields
Related UKRI funded projects
-
Making it to the Registers: Documenting Migrant Carers' Experiences of Registration and Fitness to Practise
Who gets to become and remain a professionalised healthcare worker in the UK? This question has become particularly salient given the endemic shortage of qualified healthcare workers in high-income countries with ageing ...
Funded by: AHRC
Lead research organisation: University of Leeds
Why might this be relevant?
The project specifically focuses on the strategies used to widen participation and create a more representative workforce in the healthcare sector.
-
Exploring minority ethnic doctors' career transitions in medicine: a life course approach
Medicine is, within the UK, one of the most ethnically diverse professions but despite this, evidence suggests that ethnic minority doctors still face more challenges to their career progression than their white counterp...
Funded by: ESRC
Lead research organisation: University of Birmingham
Why might this be relevant?
The project explores the career transitions of ethnic minority doctors and aims to improve support and retention in the NHS, aligning with the question's focus on widening participation and workforce representation.
-
Designing human resource management practices to improve the wellbeing of healthcare workers from BAME backgrounds in the context of COVID-19.
COVID-19 has disproportionately affected healthcare staff from black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. As the NHS is reliant on a diverse workforce, it is crucial to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on t...
Funded by: COVID
Lead research organisation: University of Leeds
Why might this be relevant?
While the project focuses on improving the wellbeing of healthcare workers from BAME backgrounds, it does not directly address widening participation or creating a more representative workforce, but it does partially align with the question's emphasis on workforce support.