Caring Together and Getting It Right for Young Carers The Carers Strategies for Scotland 2010-2015 Workforce Training and Education Plan Summary
CONTENTS Section Page 1. Background and Strategic Fit 3 2. Sponsorship, Authority and Governance 4 3. Stakeholders and Target Groups 4 4. Aims of Education and Learning Plan 5 5. Scope 7 6. Conclusion 7 2
1. Background and Strategic Fit NHS Education for Scotland (NES) is a Special Health Board, responsible for supporting NHS services for the people of Scotland through the development and delivery of education and training for all NHSScotland staff 1. Our mission is to provide educational solutions that support excellence in healthcare for the people of Scotland. Additional information on NES role is available from our website 2. The SSSC is responsible for registering people who work in social services in Scotland and regulating their education and training. The SSSC undertakes the functions of the Sector Skills Council, Skills for Care and Development (SFCD) and this includes workforce development and planning. The work of the SSSC will increase the protection of people who use social services by ensuring that the workforce is properly trained, appropriately qualified and effectively regulated. The SSSC s vision is a competent, confident and valued workforce. This is a joint workforce training and education plan by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to support and enable staff to effectively meet the needs of carers and young carers. Caring Together & Getting It Right for Young Carers 3 published by Scottish Government Health Directorates (SGHD) with COSLA in July 2010 outlines the key actions to help improve outcomes for carers and young carers. The actions will ensure that carers are equal partners in the planning and delivery of care and support and focus on identifying, assessing and supporting carers in a personalised and outcome-focused way and on a consistent basis 4. In addition the strategy for young carers highlights how they can benefit from the caring contribution they make. Their caring role can provide them with personal skills and an important role in the family, which enables them to demonstrate their commitment and affection. However, the strategy also recognises the demands of caring that can be onerous and have an adverse impact on young carers health and wellbeing. In order to ensure that the NHS and social care services can respond to the needs of carers and young carers, staff across these sectors need to be well informed, knowledgeable, trained and skilled. Staff need to have an appreciation of the role of carers and young carers and commit to engaging with them as equal and expert partners in the design and delivery of health and social care services. NES and SSSC will take the lead on workforce development for NHS and social care staff and will work with the territorial Health Boards, the national carer organisations (NCOs) and carers to ensure that any guidance, training and resources are complementary and suitable for both health and social care staff. This plan will enable NES to meet the specific actions outlined within the strategy which are 5 : 1 NES Strategic Framework 2011-2014, NES Jan 2011 http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/media/1012498/nes-strategy-framework-2011-2014.pdf 2 www.nes.scot.nhs.uk 3 The Carers and Young Carers Strategies for Scotland 2010-2015, SGHD July 2010 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/publications/2010/07/23153304/0 4 The Carers Strategy, page 4, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/publications/2010/07/23153304/0 5 The Carers Strategy, pages 86-87 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/publications/2010/07/23153304/0 3
In 2011-12, NES/SSSC in collaboration with NHS Boards and the national carer organisations, will review existing training, education and learning modules for staff working with carers and young carers and provide recommendations to identify core competencies for NHS staff in identifying and supporting carers and young carers; and identify packages and materials to be incorporated within core induction, education and training curricula. NES will communicate to the relevant regulatory, professional and national bodies the importance of identifying and supporting carers and young carers in workforce training and education. In 2012-13, NES/SSSC and the national carer organisations will produce a good practice guide to workforce training. This will be widely distributed. In developing this plan NES/SSSC has interpreted these actions into high level activities. This approach will enable development of the most appropriate educational and training solutions in response to the actions. 2. Sponsorship, Authority and Governance This workforce training and education plan will be sponsored and funded by the Policy for Unpaid Carers Branch, Adult Care and Support Division of SGHD over a potential 2 financial years. An Implementation and Monitoring Group, chaired by Scottish Government, is overseeing the implementation of the Carers and Young Carers Strategies. NES/SSSC will work with SGHD to develop an appropriate governance structure for this plan. We will also seek advice from the Implementation and Monitoring Group, the national carer organisations and territorial Health Boards and carers. NES/SSSC will seek to develop a partnership with the NCOs Carer Training Consortium, which is in the early stages of development, to ensure that we can maximise use and impact of any funding available. 3. Stakeholders and Target Groups Target groups for the provision outlined in the plan will be Health and Social care staff and staff from partner organisations (where appropriate) who provide care, treatment and support to the people of Scotland. These are staff from primary, secondary and specialist services as well as staff from partner organisations where this is appropriate. It will also include working with NHS Boards to target independent contractors and their staff, such as GPs, Practice Managers and Practice Nurses, who will be key to identifying carers and young carers and ensuring that their support needs are met and that they are involved in design and delivery of services. Through the scoping exercise and the steering group s expertise we will determine how groups of staff will be prioritised/or if a generic approach will be required. Also, if a combination of targeting management and practitioners might be needed, depending on the outcomes of the scoping work. 4
We will also target higher and further education establishments who provide training for future and current staff as well as awarding bodies for vocational training. In particular, we will utilise the joint NES/NHS Boards Practice Education infrastructure which supports a wide range of education which takes place in the practice setting and ultimately enhances patient care. NES/SSSC will also identify key partners to progress the plan. The key partners we envisage include NHS Boards, NCOs, carers and young carers, other social care providers, public sector organisations, higher and further education institutes as well as awarding bodies for vocational training and the third sector to identify partners, learning from them and acknowledging the significant expertise they have to contribute to this workforce training and education plan. This list is not exhaustive and we will continue to identify partners as the plan is progressed. 4. Aims of Workforce Training and Education Plan The key aims of this plan are: to ensure that Health and Social Services staff are well informed, knowledgeable, trained and skilled to enable them to identify and respond to the needs of carers and young carers to ensure that Health and Social Services staff have an understanding of the role of carers and young carers and that they can engage with them as equal and expert partners in the design and delivery of care In meeting these aims, the outcomes to be achieved are: carers are better supported to continue in their caring role in good physical and mental health; and treatment of those cared-for is improved as the knowledge and experience of carers is fully taken into account. Best practice will become universal practice. This particular outcome is also emphasised in the SNP Manifesto. It would also be helpful to try and assess the impact of workforce education and training on admissions, readmissions, reduction in bed days etc. We realise that this will be challenging. However, it is necessary to determine if there is a causal link between having a knowledgeable and well-informed health and social care workforce and positive impacts on people being cared for at home by carers who are themselves in better health. To enable NES/SSSC to develop this plan we need to understand what training and education currently exists across NHSScotland and its partners which will support the delivery of the key aims. We understand that work has already been undertaken by the NCOs and, in particular, their training consortium, to gather this information and Carer Information Strategies have been submitted from Health Boards. This information can provide a baseline for a review of existing training and education and enable us to identify the most appropriate educational solutions needed by staff. 5
NES presents a unique opportunity to ensure the delivery of quality-assured education and training across NHSScotland. It also offers the expertise and infrastructure necessary to support remote and rural practitioners in their day-to-day roles, for example through the NES Remote and Rural Healthcare Educational Alliance which supports the development of the NHS workforce providing healthcare services for people living in remote and rural communities throughout Scotland. NES/SSSC has a number of existing work streams and programmes that are relevant and important to the delivery and implementation of the carers and young carer s strategies. We will use existing work programmes, for example, Reshaping Care for Older People, implementation of the Dementia Strategy, long-term conditions, children & young people, mental health, learning disabilities and implementation of Healthcare Quality Strategy and Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011, as well as undergraduate and vocational training programmes, to influence a range of healthcare staff. In doing so, it will be important to remember that carers are not service users unless they have care needs in their own right. Any learning that we develop will be quality assured under the NES framework for Educational Governance 6 and using the Testing for the Best 7 resource to help us get the best outcome, design, delivery and value from our investment. The actions assigned to NES within the strategies already identify some of the pieces of work that we need to take forward. This plan will include: reviewing existing training, education and learning modules for working with carers and young carers analysis of existing provision and highlight gaps where new training and support is needed across the spectrum of learning from undergraduate through to continuous professional development building on existing NES and NHSScotland educational initiatives from across NES, the social care sector NHSScotland Health Boards, and NCOs development of new resources, tools and modules for inclusion within existing and new training and education curricula identifying, developing and disseminating a framework for staff, which links to and complements existing competency frameworks, which enable staff to identify and support carers and young carers and embedding this framework within e- KSF the knowledge and skills framework for NHS staff, (where appropriate) establishing key messages to embed within mandatory training for staff ensuring that staff new to the NHS and existing staff benefit from the education and training with sufficient time being permitted for staff to undertake the education and training identifying and building on good practice with regard to staff undertaking carers assessments and supporting carers positively and constructively working with relevant regulatory, professional and national bodies to ensure the importance of identifying and supporting carers and young carers is included within workforce training and education 6 NHS Education for Scotland, Educational Governance Framework, 2006 http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/about-nes/educational-development/educational-governance 7 Testing for the Best, NHS Education, 2009 http://www.test4best.scot.nhs.uk/homepage.aspx 6
developing good practice guidance in workforce education and training in conjunction with NCOs this guidance should be informed by the relevant expertise across NHS, social services and NCOs establishing a mechanism for engagement with carers and young carers utilising the expertise of the NCOs 5. Scope Caring Together and Getting It Right for Young Carers are the key drivers to effect change within the NHS in Scotland and in local authorities in order to ensure that we are able to identify and respond to the needs of carers and engage them as equal and expert partners in the design and delivery of care. The added value of NES/SSSC delivering this plan is the ability to use existing networks, professional groups, key partners and strategic engagement processes to ensure that this plan is delivered to the greatest number of relevant staff appropriately. NES holds a unique position to provide high quality, educational solutions for the NHS workforce across Scotland and has the ability to influence and impact upon education and training from initial induction and under-graduate programmes through the educational spectrum to vocational training, post-graduate and CPD levels. SSSC influences training and education across the social care sector. We understand the challenges of delivering education and training within remote and rural as well as diverse areas. We also understand that education, training and workforce development alone will not deliver the change necessary, but we recognise that it is a key element to support the implementation of the carers and young carers strategies. 6. Conclusion NES/SSSC is committed to supporting the delivery and implementation of the Carers and Young Carers strategies for Scotland. Through the delivery of this plan we can increase the knowledge, skills and capability of staff to ensure that carers and young carers are identified and supported within their caring role and that they are engaged as equal and expert partners in the design and delivery of care. We believe that through working together with key partners we can deliver these outcomes for carers and young carers which will in turn ensure that we are supporting the delivery of safe, effective, person-centred care for the population of Scotland. Gill Walker, Educational Projects Manager, NES Bryan Healy, Workforce Intelligence Manager, SSSC October 2011 7