TRAINING & EDUCATION


January 2018. Units of learning will no longer have to be worded exactly the same across different awarding organisations (although the content will be a close match) and awarding organisations are permitted to add a particular focus to the content of diplomas and other qualifications for social care. Ofqual will also apply a new emphasis on ensuring that awarding organisations keep checking the quality of qualifications as they are delivered.


Many care providers will be wondering how these changes will affect them. The Apprenticeship Levy will certainly increase the initial cost of apprenticeships for larger organisations. However, in Heathcotes’ view, the ideal training model for care apprenticeships is closely aligned with the Apprenticeship Levy funding model and the resources it provides via the DAS. However it is funded, the key to successful apprenticeship outcomes is a policy which communicates, demonstrates and invests in a commitment to long-term professional development.


Social care remains the largest apprenticeship framework, with 37,600 more starts in 2015-16 than the second largest framework, business administration. However, the care sector also has an average staff turnover rate which, at 25.4% according to data collected by Skills for Care, is problematically high. Low staff turnover is desirable in most industries, but especially so in the care sector as continuity is extremely beneficial for many service users. In our experience, the best way to lower staff turnover is to find potential apprentices with the right personal qualities for care work and plan a work-based, structured learning formula which teaches the necessary skills to do their job well and progress through Levels of Qualification.


Heathcotes find that, when management shows a commitment to targeting and planning clearly-defined career objectives, the apprentice oſten feels empowered and encouraged to achieve them. In an age of zero-hours contracts, when widespread job insecurity is especially acute amongst school leavers, many young apprentices respond well to the opportunity when they can see a career pathway mapped


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out to help them achieve their goals. This enthusiasm has a positive effect on the standard of their work and the experience of the service user. Problems with staff retention tend to arise when employees see their job in isolation with no reliable route to progression beyond the next pay slip.


“Low staff turnover is desirable in most industries,


continuity is extremely beneficial for many service users.”


Although the Apprenticeship Levy requires an initial investment from employers, they can reap the benefits of that investment in the longer term with ongoing learning programmes expertly organised by approved training and assessment providers registered on the DAS. With the benefit of these types of programmes, apprentices can become loyal employees who are steeped in the organisation’s values - unlike external appointments that are recruited mid-career and bring values derived elsewhere – and many have the potential to become the next generation of management with invaluable firsthand experience of the personal dynamic between carer and service user. Recruitment can be a time-consuming and costly process, so higher staff retention and progression eliminates much of the time and money spent on finding replacements (particularly at more senior levels).


The arrival of the RQF in January will give training providers greater flexibility in tailoring programmes to individual needs and it will also increase focus on the quality of qualifications. We believe that this focus can also benefit staff retention – in our experience, care workers who feel that they are receiving properly- structured, high-quality learning and development feel valued and supported


but especially so in the care sector as


as a result, which makes them more likely to remain with their employer.


One of Heathcotes’ key apprenticeship policies is the completion of the Care Certificate during the induction period. The Care Certificate is oſten seen as a staging post which recognises the completion of the first phase of learning – awarded aſter three or more months of training – but we see it as a starting point, providing a vital foundation which informs and shapes much of the work- based learning that follows. Establishing this foundation is part of a wider training model developed with assistance from our approved training provider, Learning Unlimited. It has enabled us to improve retention and progression, reducing our staff turnover rate to just 3.2% in the past financial year.


All of Heathcotes’ senior management team have progressed with the company from entry level. I started out as a 16-year-old support worker, so my own experience from leaving school has given me an appreciation of the value of care apprenticeships and carefully-structured learning for career progression. Heathcotes has a policy of having at least one apprentice based at each of our 50 residential homes across the UK and apprenticeships make up 13% of our workforce. We forecast that 83.7% of our apprentices will progress into full time employment at the end of their apprenticeship in the 2016/17 academic year, an improvement of 10.6% on the previous year’s figure and almost 20% above the overall achievement rate for the sector.


The care sector oſten talks about ‘quality of outcomes’ but the term is usually applied to service users. In other words, care providers rightly pay close attention to their service users’ journey towards the achievement of a more independent life, but afford less attention to their employees’ journey towards the achievement of career goals. It is important to recognise that these two strands are oſten closely related – investing in the latter can benefit the former.


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