Personalisation and its implications for work and employment in the voluntary sector

1. Personalisation and its implications for work and employment in the voluntary sector Dr Ian Cunningham and Professor Dennis Nickson

2. Research Aims Identify functions, skills & behaviours of voluntary sector workforce under personalisation. Investigate the extent voluntary sector workforce exhibits these skills. Explore changes to HR policies and job functions under personalisation. Assess the likely impact on terms and conditions. Identify what learning is effective in the specific practice of personalised services.

3. Structure of Presentation An overview of themes in the personalisation literature Outline of research method Three approaches to personalisation From policy to practice � findings from our study Conclusions and recommendations

4. Emerging challenges and issues with personalisation The link with public expenditure cuts The preparedness of local authority purchasers Risk management/enablement Its appropriateness to all groups using services

5. Personalisation and its impact on the workforce Recruitment and selection Changing workforce skills Terms and conditions of employment Worker morale and commitment

6. The Research Phase 1 � Interviews with four key policy makers Phase 2 � Three case studies - Oakwood, Cedar and Chestnut interviews with managers, people using services and employees.

8. Findings: The policymaker perspective Enthusiasm for personalisation, but concerns regarding: The links with public expenditure cuts The culture and practice of commissioning Significant changes and concerns for voluntary organisations Move to �just in time care� Potential benefits to the workforce accompanied by some re-skilling Resourcing for training and development Employee engagement with change Terms and conditions of employment and job security

9. Findings: organisational approaches to personalisation Oakwood � A step ahead of the pack Cedar � A logical and gradual evolution in practice Chestnut � A tentative return to the past

10. Voluntary sector employment and personalisation Accepting the vision of personalisation? Problems with commissioning culture and practice Link with cost cutting acknowledged Recruitment and selection Changes to working hours Employee skills and training

11. Voluntary sector employment and personalisation Performance management Job insecurity Health and safety concerns Pay and conditions and worker morale

12. The perspective of people using services Satisfaction with services and choices Concerns No evidence of understanding of budgets or their role Lack of choice over who assisted them Continuity in providing services Does this signal any significant change? Resource limitations

13. Recommendations Policy responses Place the needs of people using services at the heart transformation Joint training and workshops between commissioners and voluntary sector Policy makers, employers and trade unions jointly lobby government to protect resources devoted to training in skills for personalisation Refocus and develop new training programmes in personalisation Employers and trade unions jointly lobby government on issues relating to protecting employment conditions

14. Recommendations Organisational responses Share success stories in personalisation Funds to develop marketing of personalised services to individuals and local authorities Further involvement of people using services in recruitment of workers Tailor performance management systems to take account of external factors influencing success of personalisation. Conduct training audits to assess skill gaps Changes to working hours to be undertaken in conjunction with employee representatives Joint management/worker consultation on changes to redeployment and redundancy policies Continual organisational learning relating to health and safety implications of personalisation

15. Further areas of research Evolution of provider � �customer� relationship Casualisation of work under personalisation Changes to policies such as absence management Union responses to personalisation Longitudinal studies of challenges to HR Evolving policy links with notions of �Big Society�

16. Questions and comments