10th July 2024
The Care Workforce Development Partnership had its second meeting on July 10th at Henley College. It saw employers, training providers, and wider partners come together to look at the national challenges facing the sector and focus in on local skills needs and solutions. We were fortunate to hear from experts in both the national and local sector needs. Sanjay Dhrona, our Employer Champion and Managing Director of The Close Care Home in Oxfordshire started the meeting with a video message on the importance of the work we are doing within the Local Skills Improvement Plan. Rachel Reid from the sector body Skills for Care joined us to take us through the national picture, the sector reforms being worked on by the government, and the workforce picture locally.
Discussions took place on building further links between colleges and care settings. Several students visited care homes during ‘Care Home Week’, with help from the partnership to coordinate this. There was real enthusiasm for building on this and getting more students into settings more often. Eamonn Egan, Deputy Principal at Henley College took us through an overview of the data on student entrants to the care profession. This revealed a growing number of students studying care-related courses, but also a preponderance of adult learners entering the sector. There is more work to be done to encourage 16 – 18-year-olds to go into care careers, rather than jobs in other health care settings.
With this in mind, there was a chance to promote the Hallmark Foundations National Care Careers conference taking place this Autumn. Several Thames Valley colleges have now signed students up for this and details have been sent to the Careers Hubs for promotion in schools. We finished with a brief discussion on other skills needs the sector has and what kinds of qualifications and experiences would help students gain these skills. Mental Health First Aid was one example given and the group committed to sharing more of these needs and how they might be met going forward, a key aim of the local skills improvement plan. The next meeting will take place in the Autumn and will hopefully be held at The Dormy Care Home in Sunningdale, with student ambassadors present.
20th March 2024
Employers, training providers and wider partners met for the first Workforce Development Partnership of the Care sector across Berkshire and Oxfordshire. Held on March 20th at Abingdon and Witney College, discussions covered the aims of the Local Skills Improvement Plan for the sector, its skills needs and how these might be better met. We were fortunate to hear from experts in both the national and local skills needs of the sector. Rachel Reid from the sector body Skills for Care joined us by video to take us through the national picture and the qualification reforms being worked on by the government currently.
Sanjay Dhrona, Managing Director of The Close Care Home in Oxfordshire led a discussion on local skills needs. We also had input from senior managers at Abingdon and Witney on their current curriculum offer and the extensive changes to the national curriculum being brought through by current government reforms. Skills needs for the sector discussed included the wide range of ‘soft’ and ‘people’ skills required, including problem-solving, teamwork, time management and dealing with difficult situations. With higher numbers of foreign workers now forming part of the local workforce, there was also a need for training on the nuances of the English language, both written and spoken.
Care workers increasingly need higher level clinical skills than perhaps they once did, as people live longer and conditions they are living with become more complex. Actions decided upon by the group included: Promotion and focus on Care Home Week across local colleges; exploring the data – where have those in the sector come from and where do students go on to when they complete courses; collaboration between Providers/Care homes to host gatherings for those that are unable to physically attend the National Careers Care event (19th Nov 2024); the creation of a directory of roles/progression within the sector.