Future-proofing the workforce: flexible training for nurses
Sally Boyle, Head of School in the Faculty of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care at The Open University, discusses recruiting and retaining more nurses through flexible training… The UK needs more nurses; this is a simple fact. Despite the number of nurses on the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register increasing by 20,000 over the past five years, there are still 11,000 advertised vacancies for full-time nurses in the NHS in England – and while healthcare providers are understaffed, patient care is at risk. Uncertainty around nurses’ right to remain post-Brexit has seen new registrations from the EU fall from more than 10,000 in 2015/16 to just 800 in in the year 2017/18*, so it is essential we look to cultivate a more sustainable pipeline of nursing talent both within the UK itself as well as from wider sources of international recruitment. Breaking Barriers Important steps have been taken to increase the number of places available to study nursing in the UK over the past five years, but now, research in The Open University’s latest report, Breaking Barriers into Nursing, reveals that six per cent of those places went unfilled in the last current academic year. This equates to 1,450 nurses each year who could have been fully trained and ready to support the NHS within three or four years. Three in 10 young people considered studying to become a registered nurse – so it is clear that there must be significant barriers acting to deter many from doing so. Removing these barriers, or helping people to overcome them, could encourage more people to enter the profession and have a significant positive impact on the NHS. With the introduction of student loans to replace bursaries for nursing study in England, cost is undoubtedly a major disincentive to many, particularly mature students – but the associated costs (course materials, commuting, living) also pose a problem for prospective students across the UK. Along with cost, there are a number of other important issues to consider: travel, entry requirements, workload, and even the advice made available at school or college. Thankfully, however, there are a number of potential solutions to these that higher education providers and NHS employers could consider in order to improve both recruitment and retention in the sector. As a result of these barriers, many people who may be passionate about entering the profession are unable to study to become nurses, which is adding to the current crisis in nursing. It is time to reconsider the traditional idea of a ‘one size fits all’ approach to nurse education, which lacks the requisite flexibility that many of those interested in pursuing a career in the profession need. Resultantly, access to learning is limited and participation decreases. What can be done to help student nurses? It is important that we give people more options as to how, when and where they study – so that everyone who has the aptitude and values to become a registered nurse has the opportunity to do so. Currently, most higher education Institutions in the UK have entry requirements above the minimum criteria set out by the NMC. These requirements restrict access for many who want to join the profession but who may not have received good educational opportunities in the past. At The Open University, we use a robust open selection process, adhering to requirements specified by the NMC only, which means we’re able to offer places to a much more diverse range of students. With apprenticeships in England, we are starting to open up new routes into the profession, which can help to widen participation and offer continuous professional development opportunities to support staff members that aspire to become registered nurses. Enabling students to earn while they learn, apprenticeships also remove financial barriers, appealing to those concerned by the cost of study or those who would prefer to go straight into the workforce without a three or four-year period needed for study. Similarly, by embracing new technology we can deliver more flexible learning methods. Technology-enabled learning, such as that already offered by The Open University, can remove barriers for many people who would prefer to remain in their home locality to study or who are juggling other commitments. If more providers offered this, it would not only encourage more people to study nursing, it would also reduce the number of nurses who relocate back home following qualification, depriving the town or city which hosted their education of their skills and expertise. The fact that numbers of EU nurses coming to the UK to work has dramatically dropped gives us no option but to act now – we need to remove the barriers reducing our access to homegrown talent. At a time when the NHS is facing a nursing supply and demand problem, it is devastating that places remain unfilled or so many of those studying feel unable to continue, when relatively straightforward solutions could help. *The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018) The Big Picture
How social care providers can retain staff for longer
Although recruitment within the social care industry is important in order to attract the right people into your organisation, retaining good current members of staff is equally important in order to run an effective care home business. Statistics by Skills for Care estimate that every year 390,000 people leave their job in social care, which equates to 1,000 per day, leaving approximately 110,000 vacancies at any one time. Recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce, who have compatible values, can help care home organisations deliver a high quality and consistent level of care and support. Cohesion, a specialist social care recruitment company, recently surveyed care organisations on recruitment and retention. The research revealed that over half (55%) of respondents found retaining staff to be a bigger challenge than recruiting. Here Will Shepherd, CEO at Cohesion, shares his advice on how to promote better staff retention: 1. Provide role clarity – Candidates want to know the detail and if you fail to tell them up front, things can go wrong down the line. Include daily duties of the role, information about the service and team and the benefits of how to apply. It is important to highlight how the employee can make a positive difference in the advert and throughout the recruitment process – because research tells us this is the most important reason candidates will choose to apply. 2. Induction and training – When a new recruit starts working for a care home, the onboarding process is a crucial step in making them want to stay with an organisation long-term. Delivering a good induction scheme with associated training, has proven to be better than spreading training out over the first few months. Our research found that 72% of candidates surveyed at 12 weeks into their new role said that ‘opportunities to develop in and beyond their current role’ was important to them. Our research also found that 96% of all new starters who had been made to feel welcome by their manager described themselves as either ‘happy’ or ‘very happy’ in their role. It’s important to focus on other areas apart from CQC compliance training. Make it exciting by selling your business, the team and the organisation’s culture. When a new member of staff starts, shadowing and supernumerary shifts alongside existing members of staff, can have a huge impact on their confidence and enjoyment of the role. 3. Use social media – Social media is often used to attract people into a role during recruitment, but it is now having a huge impact as an engagement tool for the retention process. However, our survey revealed that 65% of social care organisations did not use social media as part of their employee retention strategy. Utilise personnel success stories across your social media channels, encouraging people to join the organisation’s community. Social media can also be used to encourage new starter recommendations – motivate, and if possible, reward staff for making candidate introductions and referrals. Consistency is key and maintaining a social media presence can ultimately make a huge impact. 4. Work-life balance in social care – Our survey revealed that 40% of people who said they were ‘very unhappy’ combined with the 32% who were ‘unhappy’, did not feel that the hours and shifts were suitable for their work-life balance or travel arrangements. The more flexible the working environment, the wider the audience of potential applicants. We are aware that this can sometimes be hard to apply within a care home, but any flexibility that you can offer in terms of shift patterns and rotas is appreciated by staff. The rewards make it worth it! 5. Listening and acting on employee feedback – By the time a member of staff is taking part in an exit interview, it is really too late to identify and solve any problems they may have faced during their period of employment. A ‘stay interview’, which takes place while an employee is still employed, provides a great opportunity to build a trusting relationship and is a chance to assess the degree of employee satisfaction and engagement. While you may not need to hold stay interviews with all employees, it’s especially important to hold them with key members of staff who might be considering a career change. Be sure to listen to your employee, take notes and action their suggestions, if they don’t feel like anything is going to change, you won’t get honest feedback. Cohesion employs some 50 recruitment experts from its headquarters in Solihull. For more information visit cohesionrecruitment.com or call 0121 713 6956. Sources: skillsforcare.org.uk/Recruitment-retention Cohesion data (2019)
Reducing staff turnover in the care industry
Colin Stevenson, the founder of Notable Change International recruitment and consultancy services, tells editor Victoria Galligan the need for selecting the right candidate through an effective screening process to make the much-needed changes in the care industry. Currently the care industry as a whole has an extremely high turnover of staff, especially true for the businesses employing care workers. The usual recruitment process at the moment is: advertise for the role, sift through CVs, carry out credentials and qualifications checks or a reference check, interview, possibly offer a second interview, then a job offer. If using a recruitment consultancy, employers are passed on applicants based on their CV and interview bias (if the consultancy likes someone and think they will suit the role, they will be passed to the employer). If recruiting in-house, it is the same process. If the CV, face and interview fits, a position will be offered. This is how it is in most industries – but this inefficient method is costing the care industry a fortune in both time and money. Personality traits, both internal and external, mean a picture presented in the interview process may not be a candidate’s true self. Internal traits make up who we are, while external traits are who we would like people to think we are in order to get somewhere or acquire something. As a result, many staff leave or are asked to leave their roles within a short period of time. From this we have a clear picture that something has to be done to ensure maximum time and money can be spent on service users rather than a failing recruitment process. How does this happen in the care industry? The interview process is the same, an applicant who does well in an interview shows their external traits, maybe exaggerates or even makes up traits to suit the position. What is hidden is their internal traits which will determine how they work, interact and most importantly care for the service users. The applicant sails the CV sift, sails the qualifications, sails the interview and becomes employed by the company. However, soon the employer finds the applicant is over-dominant, which can mean they are hard to manage, or has a low-patience threshold with service users – and traits such as these usually cause work-based conflict. A CV, two interviews and a qualification paper would not have recognised this. Hiring this person would have caused upset to the workplace dynamics, staff and service users, and inevitably the staff member would leave or be asked to leave as they were unsuitable for the position and the process will begin again – trying to look for a suitable staff member. Notable Change uses a profiling system for applicants, finding out their internal and external traits after the interview process to ensure the applicant will suit the role and the care home dynamics through answering a series of questions that produces a report. To make this even better, an employer can design their ideal candidate, using the model of their best member of staff or creating a profile with traits they wish their ideal candidate to have. This ‘ideal candidate profile’ will be used as a template for future candidates, to ensure complete peace of mind, close the profitability gap and most importantly allow employers to spend the time and money saved on recruitment on the service users, without hiring the ‘wrong applicant’ for the job. See notablechangeintl.com for more details.
What to expect from five healthcare jobs
Within its ‘Fair Care: A workforce strategy for social care’ report, the Institute for Public Policy and Research has warned that a shortfall of almost 400,000 social care staff could be created in England alone by 2028 as a result of low pay in healthcare jobs and the effects of the UK leaving the European Union. We’ve teamed up with Acorn Stairlifts, an award-winning stairlift provider, to highlight that despite the uncertainty, there are many opportunities available for focusing your career around the care industry. Here are five healthcare job roles you could consider… 1. Care worker As a care worker, your responsibility will be to assist vulnerable people so that they can manage their daily activities and be able to live as independently as possible. You will be tasked with supporting people with their social and physical activities, as well as matters related to personal care and mobility. Entry requirements A job as a care worker can be achieved by completing a college course, an apprenticeship, volunteering opportunities or by applying directly for a role. If you take the college route, you should be looking to study a course which is relevant to the care industry — obtaining a Level 1 Certificate in Health and Social Care, for instance, or a Level 2 Diploma in Care. Both lead adult care worker advanced apprenticeships and adult care worker intermediate apprenticeships can see you securing a permanent position as a care worker. Voluntary work for an organisation which provides support to vulnerable people is another option. Should you choose to directly apply for a position as a care worker and carry out training on the job, it will be useful if you’ve already obtained some experience working with people. GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (or A* to C) in English and Maths, or equivalent qualifications, may also be requested from some employers. Essential skills To be successful as a care worker, you’ll need to be able to accept criticism, communicate verbally in an exceptional manner. and be able to work effectively while under pressure. Day-to-day duties to expect • Assisting a client with matters of personal care, including dressing, using the toilet and washing. • Assisting a client when it comes to how they pay bills, manage their budget and write letters. • Preparing food and then feeding a client, as well as giving out medication. • Taking the time to get to know a client, including their needs and interests. • Undertaking general tasks, such as housework, laundry and shopping. Expected salary According to Totaljobs, the average salary for care worker jobs is £16,622. Healthcare jobs available* Carry out a search for ‘care worker’ on Indeed at the moment and you will be able to browse through 35,226 related jobs. 2. Care home manager Become a care home manager and both the leadership and day-to-day running of a residential care home will be your responsibility. You will ensure the facility meets industry standards and you should also expect to manage budgets and contracts in place throughout the organisation. Entry requirements Going to university, completing an apprenticeship, and progressing into the role by working in the care industry are all routes which could see you becoming a care home manager. Opt for the university route and you’ll want to study either a foundation degree, a higher national diploma or a degree in an associated subject such as health and social care management to begin with. Once you’ve completed your selected university course, you’ll want to apply for a place on a graduate trainee scheme. Higher apprenticeships for children, young people and family managers are available too, if you would rather take this route. You can also start on an apprenticeship for care leadership and management, though take note that additional on-the-job training will be required once you’ve obtained this qualification. If you already have a job in the care industry, there is the option to apply for training towards a role such as a deputy manager. You should be looking to begin studying for the Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care and Children and Young People’s Services, where you’ll get six pathways to select from: 1. Management of Adult Services 2. Management of Adult Residential Services 3. Practice in Adult Services 4. Management of Children and Young People’s Services 5. Management of Children and Young People’s Residential Services 6. Practice in Children and Young People’s Services Essential skills You’ll need to be able to understand a person’s reactions, have knowledge about the subject of psychology and carry out counselling, such as active listening and how to take a non-judgmental approach. Day-to-day duties to expect • Agreeing to contracts, budgeting and fundraising opportunities. • Assisting care home residents so that they can access local services. • Carrying out tasks to ensure a facility meets all legal requirement, such as those related to aspects of health and safety. • Delivering advice, information and support to care home residents, their families and other staff members at the facility. • Encouraging care home residents to participate in activities. • Monitoring the quality of care and business performance of a care home. • Promoting the rights and duties of care home residents. • Recruiting staff members, as well as training and supervising them. • Setting out practices and policies. Expected salary According to Totaljobs, the average salary for care home manager jobs is £37,500. Healthcare jobs available* Carry out a search for ‘care home manager’ on Indeed at the moment and you will be able to browse through 18,789 related jobs. 3. Residential support worker The role of a residential support worker is to look after both the mental and physical wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults who are in care. Entry requirements Your route to becoming a residential support worker could see you attending college, completing an apprenticeship, working towards the role within the care industry or applying for the position directly. Choose to go to college and the
Leicester’s Hospitals begin search for nurses to work with their older patients
The search for nurses is on. The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust are looking for enthusiastic Band 5 nurses to work in Medicine for Older People across two separate city hospital sites. Sue Burton, Head of Nursing in Medicine for Older People at Leicester’s Hospitals has been working in nursing for over 20 years and is responsible for 17 Speciality Medicine Wards and a number of specialist nurses and outpatient areas. Sue says, “We are on the search for nurses who are passionate about looking after our older patients. They need to be motivated and great communicators. Working with older people is a very rewarding area of nursing and we believe Leicester is a fantastic place to start a career as we can give nurses the experience of treating a range of different conditions and the opportunity to learn many different skills. It will allow them to get a feel for what they enjoy and how they wish to progress their career. “We support our nurses with a large team who take on tasks that don’t need to be done by a registered nurse, for example, we have housekeepers, specialist facilitators to work with dementia patients, co-ordinators responsible for discharging patients and volunteers. This means our nurses can focus on providing patients with dedicated nursing care.” Sue highlights that Leicester’s Hospitals have good education links with local universities and provide great training and education support to enable nurses to progress their careers, Sue has completed a Batchelor of Science degree, a post-graduate diploma and a Masters degree while working at the Trust. Another attraction of the role is that all nursing staff working on medical wards receive a 7% premium on top of their salary. Leicester’s Hospitals are part of a major new recruitment campaign – called Y/Our Future – working in partnership with Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, LOROS Hospice, Rutland County Council and Leicester City Council to attract greater numbers of health and social care professionals to live and work in Leicestershire and Rutland. Justine Wood is a Ward Sister in Medicine for Older People at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. She began her career in the NHS 15 years ago as a domestic assistant and soon realised her passion lay in nursing. Justine trained for her nursing qualifications through the Trust and was keen to be a surgical nurse until her last placement in medicine at the Royal Infirmary changed her mind. Justine says, “I enjoy the fast pace and exciting cases I work on in Medicine and I find it very rewarding working with older people. To send a recovered patient back home to their wife of 60 years who then continues to lead a full and active life is extremely fulfilling. It is hard work, but very satisfying to finish a shift and know you’ve made a difference to someone’s life. “I’m proud to work with a wonderful team and we receive lots of praise and lovely feedback from appreciative patients and their families, which spurs me on. The staff at the Trust are very supportive and there are many learning opportunities for all nurses of different stages – I’ve gained a vast amount of experience and I am currently working towards my degree. “As long as you are prepared to work hard, you’ll go far here. For anyone considering becoming a nurse working with older people I would say, don’t hesitate – come and join us!” For information on the search for nurses, the vacancies available and to apply for the role: https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/xi/vacancy/?vac_ref=915508145
Care Home Support and Training
At Care Home Support and Training we work with Managers, Nominated Individuals and Providers to meet and exceed the regulatory requirements. Expectations on social care services mean that Managers and Providers can sometimes feel overwhelmed with what appears to be increasing demands and ever changing requirements. Care Home Support and Training work with you, offering professional support and expertise to find creative solutions to your challenges and problems. We have a small team, with over 45 years of experience in health and social care. We offer a personalised service, specific to your needs, whether that is training in the fundamental standards, how to improve your CQC rating, streamlining documentation or policies …. or any care home challenges that you may face. CQC are using their enforcement powers to effect change, placing restrictions on registration as well as closing services that fail to meet the regulations. We are just as passionate about the quality of social care services and how quality impacts on service users, but we will help you and your business to succeed. Being the Registered Manager is a pivotal role in health and social care. Does the Manager get the training, support and mentorship that they require? Is the service well-led because the Manager is continuously seeking to improve? Remember, we all know that mistakes will occur, but it is what the Manager does about it that affects the care home rating. Our training can be delivered at your premises or at one of the many venues across the country. If you want further details about any of the services that we offer, then please use the contact form on our website: http://carehomesupportandtraining.co.uk
Y/Our Future Recruitment campaign welcomes health and social care professionals to Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland
Y/Our Future is a new recruitment campaign launched today that unites five major health and social care employers – University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, LOROS Hospice, Rutland County Council and Leicester City Council – in a bid to recruit doctors, nurses and health and social care workers to work in hospitals, hospices and in communities across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Together, the partners have a 38,000-strong workforce. Y/Our Future aims to promote Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland as a leading career destination for health and social care professionals, with great career and lifestyle opportunities. While each of the partners has individual recruitment needs, by joining forces their vision is for recruitment to be more effective and affordable. The initiative also creates an attractive opportunity for recruits to build their careers across the partner organisations and for the partners to deliver more joined-up services to local people. A multi-media campaign will support the launch, together with a dedicated website (www.your-future.co.uk), which will be a central hub for signposting job advertisements from the partner organisations. Job seekers visiting the site can view the complete range of health and social care opportunities across the entire region. News and Y/Our Future case studies will also be featured on the website, highlighting successful healthcare professionals living and working in the region. The campaign aims to help address the UK-wide skills crisis in healthcare. Figures published by NHS Improvement[i] this year highlighted that one in 11 jobs across NHS hospitals, ambulance and mental health trusts are vacant and the nursing shortage is at a record high. Social care providers across the UK are struggling to recruit and retain qualified staff. The 2018 Skills for Care report estimates that 8.0% of roles in adult social care are vacant, an average of approximately 110,000 vacancies at any one time. The vacancy rate also rose by 2.5 percentage points between 2012/13 and 2017/18. The rate of staff turnover of directly employed staff working in the adult social care sector was 30.7%, which equates to approximately 390,000 people leaving jobs over the year. Dr Peter Miller, Chief Executive, Leicestershire Partnership Trust says, “Y/Our Future is a strategic and collaborative campaign to attract health and social care workers to Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Located in the heart of England, the region offers a fantastic place for them to enjoy fulfilling careers, an excellent standard of living, with affordable housing, central transport links and great schools. We have a wide range of benefits and working options, strong relationships with our local universities, and an extensive learning and development offer.” So what career opportunities are on offer? Leicestershire Partnership Trust (LPT) provides a range of health and wellbeing services. It serves one million people and employs almost 5,500 staff, providing services in adult mental health and adult learning disability services; families and young people and children’s services and community health services. Its goal is to recruit qualified nurses, some speciality doctors, good quality apprentices and people who want flexible bank contracts. The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust is one of the largest, acute teaching hospitals in England, with a 15,000 strong workforce. It offers an extensive range of education, learning and practice development opportunities. Currently, there are vacancies for Consultant Radiographers, junior grade doctors in Maxillofacial, doctors specialising in Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), Nurses, Theatre staff (ODP and TSA) Radiographers and Physiotherapists. Hazel Wyton, Director of People and Organisational Development at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust says, “We hope that by working together Y/Our Future will allow us to promote the benefits and job opportunities in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. We offer great career paths, education and development opportunities, whilst helping our staff to strike the right balance between their work and personal life through a range of working options – from part time to term time contracts and job shares. With hospitals up and down the country competing for a finite number of staff, it is important for us to really sell the benefits of living and working in the heart of the country.” LOROS Hospice is a local charity that cares for 2,500 people across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. It provides free, high-quality, compassionate care and support to terminally ill adult patients, their families and carers. The Hospice is looking for clinical nurses, AHP as well as administrative staff and a wide range of volunteers. Ruth Auton, Director of Education & Workforce at LOROS says, “We are an adult hospice providing in-patient, day therapy and community care. As a charity we offer a breadth of careers unique to healthcare providers, ranging from nursing associates to nurse specialists; porters to physiotherapists; housekeepers to healthcare assistants; social workers to shop managers; fundraising to finance roles; complementary therapists to chefs, chaplains to councillors.” Leicester City Council is one of Leicester’s largest employers with more than 12,000 staff, responsible for delivering all local government services to people living in Leicester. They are looking to recruit health and social care professionals committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and are particularly interested in recruiting social workers. Steven Forbes, Strategic Director Social Care & Education at Leicester City Council, says, “We are incredibly excited to be part of the collaborative Y/Our Future recruitment campaign, as Leicester is a great place to kick start or progress your career. We welcome new recruits into a supportive team environment where they can receive good quality training with opportunities for both personal and professional development.” Rutland County Council serves a population of roughly 38,000 people, a large proportion of whom have increasingly complex health and social care needs. The local authority is regularly listed among the country’s top performers for health and social care – success that has been driven by innovation, a clear focus on providing personalised care and empowering its staff. Mark Andrews, Strategic Director for People at Rutland County Council, said: “We’re extremely pleased to be part of Y/Our Future recruitment campaign and offer people the chance to join our social care teams. We operate in a
How can nurses and carers progress their careers?
Michael Johnson-Ellis, one of the managing directors of Healthier Recruitment – an agency that fills vacancies for NHS, private and third sector healthcare organisations with permanent staff only – discusses career development… With services under pressure, tighter budgets and a lack of staff and resources, many nurses and carers report feeling stunted with regard to professional development. However, there are a number of things you can do to progress your career regardless of the external situation.Here are some potential pathways to development: Setting Goals Setting goals orients you towards a certain outcome. Scheduling time to sit down and think about your career, options and aspirations and setting a goal with a deadline when you do so is a great start towards development. Having a long term strategy, such as a five year plan, where you not only identify what you’d like be doing, but also the type of organisations you’d like to work for, will also help guide you towards your larger goals. Networking The importance of networking cannot be understated when trying to progress your career. There’s no holy grail when it comes to networking, but some examples are: – Attending events, job fairs, and recruitment open days.– Using LinkedIn and reaching out to fellow healthcare professionals.– Joining professional networks.– Speaking to colleagues, friends or family about potential opportunities. For nurses, networking is also vital for completing revalidation. As 20 hours of your CPD must involve ‘participatory learning’, activities such as attending conferences can be instrumental in completing this. Furthermore, networking helps with other areas of revalidations, such as obtaining five pieces of ‘practice related feedback’ and reflective discussion. The appraisal system Put time aside in advance of your next appraisal and think about development opportunities you can discuss with your appraiser. You could do this three months ahead of your interview by drafting a Personal Development Plan (PDP). If you make it clear with your appraiser how you wish to develop, it will put you in good stead with those senior to you, making it more likely you’ll be considered for future opportunities when they arise. See what’s out there Searching for vacancies on job websites or social media and signing up for job alerts from agencies and employers is an important step to take. Doing so will help you learn which roles are in demand, what the pay, hours and conditions are like, and the requirements that employers are looking for. Also, following potential employers on social media and keeping up to date with the latest news and developments will provide key information on opportunities and expand your market knowledge. See healthierrecruitment.co.uk for more details on CPD for nurses and carers.
Society’s social care training benefits residents and staff alike
Anne Kasey, Home Manager and Clinical Lead for maritime charity, the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society, discusses the importance of investing in training in the social care sector and how it benefits residents… It doesn’t matter which sector one operates in – having the right staff for the job is paramount to the success of any business. In the social care industry, this is more important than anywhere as staff are fundamental to the health and wellbeing of residents and have a duty of care to fulfil. The social care sector is currently facing difficulties recruiting and retaining qualified staff – in fact 15% of vacancies across the entire UK economy are in the health and social work sectors according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). To combat this, up-skilling employees is part of a solution that contributes to the smooth running of a care home. Here at the Royal Alfred we have an in -house trainer, allowing our staff to have consistent one-on-one training on site. This helps to ensure all staff are working to the same standard and addresses any gaps in knowledge, it also demonstrates to employees that they are part of a supportive workplace. Having staff that are equipped with the necessary qualifications, skills and training not only increases job efficiency, but can drastically improve morale and enables staff members to feel empowered and valued in their roles. All of this helps to achieve a better experience for residents as well as complying with Care Quality Commission standards. As a charity serving former seafarers, we understand our residents’ individual needs and recognise the people who call Royal Alfred home are deserving of the best standard of care. Earlier this year we commenced specialist training with our pioneering Maritime Acquaint Training programme to provide staff with a knowledge of the maritime industry. Funded by a close supporter of the Society, our staff took part in a training day hosted on a P&O cross channel ferry from Dover to Calais. This now annual programme was created by our CEO, Commander Brian Boxall-Hunt, to help staff better understand residents’ physical and psychological needs and the care required for each individual. This training session allowed our staff to fully immerse themselves in how life would have been like at sea, and the understanding of how large vessels operate at sea, often in treacherous weather conditions and across long journeys. This is key for us to help employees understand our residents’ past experiences and is what makes our residents’ stay truly unique. Benefits of such in-depth training within the care sector are not just experienced by residents. At Royal Alfred, we provide not just a job, but a career. We think training improves staff morale, which is key to the smooth running of any care home and boosts staff retention. Recently we commended five members of staff with long service awards for dedicating ten years of their working life to the home to make them feel valued and supported in their roles – just one example of a success story at Royal Alfred. We have many long-serving staff and I myself having been with Royal Alfred for over 30 years and Margaret Brazier (Executive Assistant to CEO Brian for over 50 years). It shows that people really do invest their careers with us due to good training, career progression and opportunity. For the Royal Alfred, training creates better experiences for our residents that depend on the expertise of staff for their day-to-day care, while staff develop their careers at the same time. At a time when social care recruitment is proving difficult, the time has come to consider training to help plug the gap and we urge any care home to consider investment now for sustained success. For more information on the social care which Royal Alfred offers, see royalalfredseafarers.co.uk
