TRAINING & EDUCATION


Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders


Not sure of what benefits can come from hosting a graduate training programme within your organisation? Skills for Care explains how its Graduate Management programme can help you just as much as the graduates you take on.


Since its launch in 2009, Skills for Care’s Graduate Management programme has seen 140 graduates take up challenging year-long placements with employers from across the growing sector.


The scheme is deliberately designed to be very much a two-way process, as employers report that the graduates bring new ideas and thinking into their organisations. That’s why Skills for Care is now looking for innovative social care organisations to host ambitious graduates for its next cohort of an intense programme designed to develop future leaders in health and social care.


The programme is now run in partnership between Skills for Care, the NHS Leadership Academy, and supported by the Department of Health and Social Care. It offers employers access to a talented pipeline of committed graduates who bring transferable skills and knowledge, which feedback from hosts and graduates shows are a proven catalyst for change and improvement.


The programme also includes a secondment with NHS partners, offering the graduates a chance to gain invaluable experience working in both social care and health.


The ninth cohort are already out in the field and the graduates were only offered a placement aſter completing a rigorous values-based selection process before being carefully matched with host organisations to ensure both parties benefit.


Melanie Weatherly MBE, Chair of Lincolnshire Care Association (LinCA), recently hosted graduate Grace Neal, and she is very clear about the benefits to her partnership that brings together employers right across the county.


Melanie said: “What has been fantastic to watch is the way that Grace has blossomed, and there isn’t any other way to describe it.


“LinCA would be happy to host another graduate, and part


of Grace’s contract involves her completing an application to host a future graduate.”


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Over her year with LinCA, Grace worked to improve the workforce of care staff in Lincolnshire by working closely with schools and colleges to develop a Care College in Lincoln to help find new people with the right values to work in adult social care. She also supported SME providers to access council levy funding, increasing the amount of apprenticeships in Lincolnshire.


Building on that, Grace also completed her secondment with Health Education England, helping her to understand health and social care as a system-wide approach.


“Taking part in the programme made us think about our key objectives as an organisation and clearly articulate how these could be achieved. We have also benefited from having a new perspective as part of our discussions,” added Melanie.


Encouragingly, 70% of recent graduates have committed to a health and social care career on completion of the programme because they know their work has meant that people who access care and support can receive high-quality services that they’ve helped shape on their placement. Many of the programme alumni are already in senior leadership and management roles.


Andy Tilden, Skills for Care’s interim CEO, noted: “Now going into our tenth cohort, we’ve seen many success stories over the years as the programme continues to develop influential and confident leaders of the future.


“It’s imperative that we continue to invest in new talent as the sector faces significant challenges. The programme offers graduates the chance to develop their careers, and their hosts have told us how graduates have created opportunities to do things differently in their service. I would urge any organisation thinking of offering a placement to apply before the deadline.”


Applications for organisations to host a graduate are open now until Monday 6th


April 2020. www.skillsforcare.org.uk/hostagraduate www.tomorrowscare.co.uk


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