TRAINING & EDUCATION Train and Retain


Rob Newby, Skills for Care's Head of Workforce Inclusion, Leadership, and Development, discusses the importance of learning and development for all staff in social care, and looks at why training must remain a priority even in busy and challenging times.


With 2022 well underway, we’re moving into the new financial year. These early months of both the calendar and financial year are a key time for managers to make plans for the forthcoming year.


While in social care we certainly can’t plan for everything, there are some elements that we can prepare for each year, one of which is the continuing professional development of our teams.


For social care managers, prioritising learning and development is crucial for both your employees and the people who you support. Providing ongoing learning and training opportunities for staff has been shown to have a positive impact on motivation, job satisfaction and retention rates, which when coupled with new skills and knowledge gained through learning and development, means better levels of care for the people who you support.


“In previous Skills for Care research 87% of employers told us that offering


learning and development opportunities improved staff commitment.”


In busy and challenging times, it can be easy to move the focus away from learning and development – it’s only understandable when there’s so much else for the workforce to prioritise day-to-day – but while during these times it may seem that learning and development for staff cannot take priority, in fact these may be the very times in which it is more important than ever.


That’s not to say that a planned training module can’t be rescheduled if it falls on the same day as a Covid outbreak, but it simply means making sure that learning and development is also kept on the priority list to be worked on through the year.


TRAIN TO RETAIN


We know that recruitment and retention is particularly difficult for the social care sector right now and faced with these challenges there may be less time and capacity available to prioritise learning and development. But providing continuing professional development for staff has been shown to support retention, meaning that prioritising learning opportunities for your team could actually help you to retain more staff.


- 38 - www.tomorrowscare.co.uk


In fact, in previous Skills for Care research 87% of employers told us that offering learning and development opportunities improved staff commitment, while employers who have a turnover rate of less than 10% told us that investing in learning and development was one of the key reasons that they managed to retain high levels of staff. Providing ongoing professional development for your team is key because it makes staff feel valued, which increases their motivation, dedication, and job satisfaction – all of which means they’re more likely to stay with your organisation for the long-term.


Investing in development opportunities for your staff also opens-up different pathways for progression within your organisation and allows staff to upskill and take on more responsibility, which means they can continue to grow their career with you and will be less likely to look elsewhere.


Of course, the challenges brought about by the pandemic have also meant we’ve had to continually learn and adapt, and this has proven just how skilled and capable our dedicated workforce is to learning new ways of working and adapting to changing needs and demands.


As we move through the pandemic and towards a post- pandemic time, the changing needs of our communities and landscape of our society will continue to impact on the way that social care is delivered and the way that we work. Investing in the ongoing learning and development of our workforce will ensure we build a social care sector that is able to continue to meet the changing needs of our communities now and in the future.


www.skillsforcare.org.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50