HEALTHIER WORKING LIVES AND AGEING FOR WORKERS IN THE CARE SECTOR: DEVELOPING CAREERS, ENHANCING CONTINUITY, PROMOTING WELLBEING (HWL)

人们普遍认为，质量好、安全的工作对一个人的身心健康有益。如果是这样的话，能够健康快乐地工作更长时间将是朝着迎接英国健康老龄化挑战迈出的重要一步，到2035年，人们应该受益于更多的健康和独立的生命年。随着年龄的增长，一些员工已经在寻求从事更具社会意义或对个人更有成就感的工作，护理工作已被确定为提供此类机会。如果工作可以更灵活和适应他们的工作/生活需要，其他人会选择继续发挥他们现有的照顾作用。然而，这项工作对体力和精神的要求都很高，而且回报仍然很低。医疗行业对英国经济的价值约为159亿英镑，有超过5500名提供者。超过80%的工人是妇女，其中21%来自BAME，约30%的人年龄在50岁以上，这个年龄段的许多人担任监督和管理职务。护理人员的构成也反映了不平等，新冠肺炎加剧了不平等，在2020年间，薪酬较低、年龄较大的护理人员经历了不成比例的疾病和死亡。此外，移民变化的影响，部分与英国退欧有关，对工人和提供者来说都特别令人担忧。重新雇用和留住移民是主要的挑战。在新冠肺炎疫情的第一波期间，有时会有120,000个职位空缺，其中许多是由中介机构的工作人员填补的(增加了病毒传播的风险)。现在，在第二波中，供应商报告称，对在该行业工作的恐惧正在阻止潜在的申请者，工人们在这份也是一份有回报的工作中谈到了自己的压力。每年的工作人员流动率是三分之一，这对工作人员、居民、家庭和社区的福祉构成了显著的挑战。人员配置的连续性、对其工作价值的认识以及支持工人共同确定其发展需求，这些都是该项目的核心。该团队的成员包括代表400家私人(非营利和慈善)住宅供应机构的Scotish Care、英国领先的退休村庄提供商之一Legal&General、为创意的部署提供指导的英国最大的技术孵化器Codebase，以及设计顾问Creative Venue(英国设计委员会前首席执行官John Mathers和他的同事Julian Grice，他们在将设计学科应用于公共服务和政策创新方面具有丰富经验)，他们将与护理人员和研究团队密切合作，探索和共同设计可能的解决方案，以解决护理人员日常面临的健康和专业发展挑战。Creative Venue还将利用他们丰富的设计知识和网络，为护理员的想法提供最好的商业成功机会。来自爱丁堡大学的研究人员在护理、健康、设计、商业和工作生活方面拥有数十年的经验，他们与合作伙伴密切合作，共同开发这个项目。在36个月的四个阶段中，我们将重新审视现有的知识，与护理部门的工作人员接触，考虑他们工作和角色发展的优先事项，将整个团队的工作作为一个整体结合起来，举办联合设计研讨会，为产出和产品制定想法，以及对过程和成果的应用进行最终审查。在每个阶段，团队的角色都是倾听、探索，确保关键对话能够以安全和探索性的方式进行，并考虑并潜在地推进想法。我们的知识网络由Sophie Bowlby(学者，第三部门董事会成员)和Stephen Coleman(CodeBase)共同担任主席，吸引了工人、护理提供者、设计、孵化器和技术团体的参与。

It is generally accepted that being in good quality, safe work is beneficial for one's physical and mental wellbeing. If this is the case, being able to work healthily and happily for longer would be significant step toward meeting the UK's Healthy Ageing Challenge that people should be benefitting from five more healthy and independent years of life by 2035. Some workers are already seeking to move into more socially meaningful or personally fulfilling work as they get older, and care work has been identified as offering such opportunities. Others would choose to continue in their existing caring role if the work could be more flexible and accommodating to their work/life needs. However, the work can be physically and emotionally demanding, and it remains poorly rewarded.The care sector is worth circa £15.9billion to the UK economy, with over 5,500 providers. Over 80% of workers are women, with 21% of BAME origin, and some 30% are aged 50 plus with many of this age group working in supervisory and managerial roles. The composition of the care workforce also reflects inequalities, reinforced by Covid-19 with the lower paid, older and BAME workers have disproportionately experienced illness and deaths across 2020. Further, the impact of changes in immigration, linked in part to Brexit, are of particular concern to both workers and providers.Recruitment and retention are major challenges. During wave one of the Covid-19 pandemic, at times there were 120,000 vacancies many filled by agency workers (with increased risked of virus transmission). Now in wave two, providers report that fear of working in the sector is deterring prospective applicants and workers speak of their own stresses in what is also a rewarding job. The annual turnover of staff is a third and this presents and notable challenge to the wellbeing of staff, residents, families, and communities. Continuity in staffing, recognition of the value of their work, and supporting workers to co-determine their development needs, are central to this project. The team combines Scottish Care, which represents 400 organisations in the private, not for profit and charities sector of residential provision, Legal & General, one of the UK's leading providers of retirement villages, Codebase the largest technology incubator in the UK, which offers mentorship for the deployment of ideas, and design consultants Creative Venue (John Mathers, ex-CEO of the British Design Council, and his colleague Julian Grice, who has extensive experience in applying design disciplines to public services and policy innovation), who will work closely with care staff and the research team to explore and co-design possible solutions to the health and professional development challenges that care workers face daily. Creative Venue will also use their extensive design knowledge and networks to give care workers' ideas the best possible chance of commercial success. Researchers with decades of experience in care, health, design, business and working life from the University of Edinburgh have worked closely with partners to co-develop this project. Across four stages over 36 months, we will revisit existing knowledge, engage with care sector staff to consider their priorities for working and role development, combine work across the team as a whole to run co-design workshops, develop ideas for outputs and products, along with a final review of the process and application of outcomes. At every stage, the role of the team is one of listening, exploring, ensuring critical conversations can take place in safe and exploratory ways, with ideas considered and potentially taken forward. Our Knowledge Network, co-chaired by Sophie Bowlby (Academic, Third Sector Board Member) and Stephen Coleman (CodeBase), has engagement from workers, care providers, design, incubator, and technology groups.