Staffing community services

The key resource in social and health care is staff, and any transition of the locus of provision, as with the move of many hundreds of people from hospital to the community, obviously posed challenges for staff at all levels within the organisations involved. Data on staffing policies and staff numbers, qualifications and experience, special training, attitudes, responsibilities and duties, patterns of communication and job satisfaction were gathered. Much of the data came from the four or more years of monitoring and liaison, including questions on staff in the routine annual report and end of project questionnaires. The transition from hospital to community was a major change not only for clients, but also for the many nurses and specialists working in the 50 or more hospitals from which project clients were selected. Because of the clear longer-term threat to job security, there was naturally some resistance to project proposals.