An Employee Assistance Programme for the Paid Social Care Workforce in Wales

Tender description

The social care workforce has been at the forefront of the current Covid-19 response providing care for people particularly at risk of the virus in residential care homes and in the community. In their role, many social care workers will have been exposed to higher levels of stress, longer working hours and higher than usual number of deaths of the people they work with. Evidence suggests that it is likely that the impact on emotional wellbeing will last beyond the immediate crisis. In addition the intelligence generated from the development of the workforce strategy indicated that there were particular challenges facing the social care workforce in Wales, with reference made to the ongoing wellbeing of the workforce and its ability to maintain its resilience and capacity when addressing those challenges. To assist in mitigating the impact as a result of the pandemic, Social Care Wales, on behalf of and with funding from the Welsh Government, is seeking to appoint a provider to supply an Employee Assistance Programme to the paid social care workforce across Wales across the independent and third sector. For the purposes of this commission, the paid social care workforce across the independent and third sector is estimated at 55,000 people across Wales. This is based on data submitted by the social care sector in 2019.