Posted on: 16 June 2022
Health Care Support Workers spend more time with the people who use our services than any other staff group but, in the NHS overall, they have the least spent on their training and development so they can make career progress and retain their skills, compassion and experience.
In CNWL we are setting out to change that under the umbrella of the Health Care Support Worker Project.
Our Clinical Education Team has introduced a five step development programme for all Health Care Support Workers; to support those who want to train to be a Registered Nurse as well as those who want to be the best Support Worker they can be.
Parts of the pathway are already well established e.g. we have nearly 100 Health Care Support Workers on the Registered Nursing Degree apprenticeship and we aim to start another 30 this year. Until this week we did not have a Trust-wide, induction programme specifically designed to introduce Health Care Support workers to the Trust and support those who are new to caring.
This week however Lizzie Mander, a Clinical Education Lead, launched a two week enhanced induction programme for all Health Care Support Workers new to the Trust.
From here Health Care Support Workers will be recruited centrally and their start date will be coordinated with the enhanced induction programme.
This programme will include the Care Certificate, mandatory training, an introduction to basic physical and mental health skills and training in Human Factors.
In addition all Health Care Support Workers on the programme will be sign-posted to Maths and English training if they want it and participate in a ‘Next Steps’ career conversation.
The programme will give new Health Care Support Workers an introduction to the opportunities which CNWL offers and we hope it will encourage them to stay at CNWL and draw on the support to develop their career.
The first cohort started this week and at the end of their first day gave some excellent feedback; overall the cohort felt welcomed, informed and valued.