IVLWR E-BULLETIN IN THIS ISSUE SUPPORT WORKER EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT IVLWR NEWS WHO WE ARE SPRING 2015 WELCOME Welcome to the first of a new series of e-bulletins from the Institute of Vocational Learning and Workforce Research (IVLWR). Each will include news about activity the Institute is involved in and more general information about health and social care support worker education and development. What we do: • research • evaluation • health and social care role design, development and deployment • training needs analysis • policy advice and implementation. Richard Griffin speaking at the National Care Certificate launch in London on 17 February 2015 SUPPORT WORKER EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT — WHAT NEXT? There is no doubt that the last year has seen a much welcomed and needed focus on support worker education and development. While in part a response to the failings uncovered at Mid Staffs and elsewhere, recent policy also reflects a more positive message, acknowledging the vital contribution that roles like porters, receptionists, domiciliary care workers, health care assistants and many others make to safe and effective care. Most of the new policy framework is now in place (see below), although we are still waiting for the Shape of Caring review and Higher Certificate. With a general election looming it seems an appropriate time to ask – what next? First and foremost we need policy stability. Developments from the Cavendish Review such as the Care Certificate need to bed in. Whoever wins the election must not unpick the good work that has been done. There are some things that could be done. We need: • greater joined up working between health and social care workforce development partners. This is beginning with shared teaching of the Care Certificate for example or apprenticeship roles that rotate through the sectors • more investment in higher-level support worker skills • more collaboration, partnership and networking between employers, education providers, staff, unions and others • to value support workers more and that includes making sure they are paid fairly. KEY DOCUMENTS Bridging programme http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/standards/skills-for-health-bridging-programme Care Certificate http://hee.nhs.uk/work-programmes/the-care-certificate-new/the-care-certificate/ Cavendish Review https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-healthcare-assistants-and-support-workers-in-nhs-and-social-care Pre-nursing degree experience pilots http://hee.nhs.uk/work-programmes/pre-nursing-care-experience-pilots/ Shape of Caring review http://hee.nhs.uk/work-programmes/shape-of-caring-review/ Talent for Care http://eoe.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/1to4/ Widening participation http://nw.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/widening-participation-incubator-project/ IVLWR IN THE NEWS Nursing Standard (2014), November 19, vol. 29 no. 12 Training Journal (February, 2015) Building Talent Together www.trainingjournal.com/articles/magazine/february-2015. This article is a description of the implementation of the care certificate at Hillingdon Hospital as one of the national pilots. IVLWR evaluates key Department of Health policy Completed in January, IVLWR undertook an economic evaluation of the pilot schemes allowing potential nursing degree students to gain experience working for up to a year as a support worker. The policy was announced in response to the Francis Inquiry. The Institute worked with national stakeholders such as NHS Employers, Unison and Health Education England (HEE) to assess the cost – benefit of the policy. The evaluation was accepted by HEE’s board at the start of the year. Working with Health Education North West London (HENWL) For the last year IVLWR has been working with HENWL and employers in North West London to deliver a major programme of work designed to improve support worker education and development. North West London has a population of 2 million people and over 14,000 staff work in NHS support roles. The projects has a number of deliverables including: • delivering the Care Certificate • increasing apprenticeship starts • developing new education programmes • designing a quality assurance. Macmillan Berkshire Wellbeing Programme The Institute has completed a review of the Macmillan Berkshire Well-Being Programme. This will feed into a wider national evaluation of all Macmillan interventions. This will be available on IVLWR website shortly. Health Education Thames Valley (HETV) The Institute is currently working closely with HETV to develop a number of initiatives to support NHS organisations in tier engagement with young people in schools and colleges. This will include resources for use with primary as well as secondary pupils. A toolkit to support community engagement activity will be piloted in the summer and completed by the autumn Health Education Wessex and South Eastern Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group The Institute is helping develop new support workforce roles to improve the service offer to the frail and frail elderly in community settings. We have agreed the competencies with a broad stakeholder group, and now we are refining the descriptions of the skills and knowledge needed, mapping them to other national standards and checking them with existing support workers. We will also be outlining the education and training requirements that will help individuals in the new roles meet the needs of patients and patients’ supporters. Excellence Centre to focus on North West London’s health support workforce Funding has just been announced for a new North West London Excellence Centre to improve the quality and accessibility of training for England’s healthcare support workforce. It is part of the National Skills Academy for Health (NSA Health), and one of only four Excellence Centres in the country. IVLWR worked closely with partners in primary and secondary care in North West London to develop the successful bid which involved 15 separate health employers. Helen Bodlak, Lead Nurse for Education Bands 1-4 Development at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said “as a consortium of employers in the North West of London, we were absolutely delighted to be selected. This will enable us to continue with and build upon the excellent work we have already begun. Support workers across the sector will benefit from this cohesive relationship and resources and this will in turn impact positively on our patients and care delivery.” Our next e-bulletin will be distributed in July. We are hoping to feature some guest writers for each bulletin. Would you like to contribute around 300 words on a topic of your choice? Please get in touch! WHO WE ARE Richard Griffin Mary Somerville John Bateson An economist, Richard has been working in health and social care vocational education and research for twenty-five years including for the Department of Health. Most recently he was an advisor to the Cavendish Review and is a member of Health Education England’s Talent for Care Management Group and the Council of Dean’s Health Support Worker Group. His main research interest is training impact evaluation. He is the author of Complete Training Evaluation (Kogan Page, 2014). Mary’s background is in nursing and education. Mary has experience of over thirty years within the Education, Social Care and Health sectors, and in recent years she has worked on numerous and diverse projects resulting in many contacts and strong networks across London and the South East. Her strengths revolve around the ability to listen to colleagues, and conduct consultations, either face to face, telephone or by group facilitation. Support Worker training and education has been a feature of much of the work undertaken to date, particularly around the increasingly important interface between the Health and Social Care sectors. John has over 15 years’ experience in the health sector, as a service manager and a change manager, and is a member of the Institute of Health Service Managers. He led the North East London Coronary Heart Disease Collaborative Modernisation Programme and pioneered innovative national work to place patients at the heart of care improvement initiatives. Working for the sector skills council, Skills for Health, John was involved in many areas of workforce planning and training delivery, including leading widening participation projects on behalf of NHS London. Contact us: Richard Griffin Director, Institute of Vocational Learning and Workforce Research Mobile: 07788 183 758 Email: Richard.Griffin@bucks.ac.uk Contacts Follow us on Twitter @IVLWR Coming soon! Our Summer Special Interest event will be held at the end of June or first week of July. We are just waiting for confirmation of speakers and venue and we will send this out as soon as possible.