Hi Charlotte, hope you're well. Can you paint us a portrait of yourself and your role?

I am Charlotte Moul, I work for Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB but am dedicated to the South Cumbria Place Based Partnership. My role is Workforce Partnership Development and Programme Manager, which is a long way of saying I work with a multitude of stakeholders across our place and the wider system to look at ways in which we can recruit, retain and train our workforce differently by working together. I have developed and lead on a programme of work to support these aims, working with a variety of partners across various forums including the Bay Anchor Network, which Lancaster University are members of.

What does a typical working day look like for you?

One thing I love about my role is the variety. As such no two days are ever the same! I support a variety of projects across our programme, from colleague health and wellbeing to widening access to quality work to looking at how we can better attract and retain the Health and Social Care workforce. I also work on nationally funded bids to support the governments Work and Health agenda. As partnership manager I also spend a lot of time building relationships with our partners and being a conduit across our network of stakeholders. As such my days are generally a nice mix of partnership meetings and programme delivery work.

What motivates you to do what you do?

I love what I do because I genuinely feel like I can make a difference. Working in collaboration with our partners really opens up the art of the possible and I love seeing what we can achieve together. I am so fortunate to not only work in a great team but with some equally great partners who are all passionate about improving the working lives of our residents.

What is/has been your favourite aspect of being part of the collaborative community through the Health Innovation Campus?

The Health Innovation Campus is such a great collaborative space and I really enjoy working there. The Collaboration Cafes are a great forum to meet people and make connections but equally just walking around the building you can do the same as everyone is open and friendly. The partnerships teams are always so welcoming and friendly and really bring collaboration together. They have supported and enhanced so many elements of our programme.

What future projects and collaborations are you excited about?

We are currently working with the University and our partners across the Bay Anchor Network to understand barriers into employment for underrepresented demographics. We carried out of piece of work to compare local demographic data against our joint workforce data to understand where the gaps are in terms of being an “employer that is representative of our local population”. Following this, we are in the process of working with our Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise Sector (VCFSE) and community-based partners to understand what the barriers are to obtaining and remaining in employment with anchor organisations. This data will then form a research-based report of recommendations for partners to improve their recruitment and retention polices/processes to make them more accessible to these groups.