Skills for Care’s successful learning campaign is returning for 2024 to inspire social care workers to ‘Keep learning for success.’
The campaign first ran in January – March 2023 to highlight how ongoing learning and development is “absolutely vital” for social care staff at all levels, and is being repeated this January and February.
Skills for Care hope they can continue to raise awareness of the benefits of “a strong learning culture” and showcase the opportunities available within the sector.
They assert that investing in learning and development is key for an organisation’s success as it helps to:
- Develop skills and knowledge
- Support better staff retention
- Develop effective managers for now and the future
- Support better quality care for people using services
Learning campaign highlights staff retention benefits
The national workforce development charity says that all workers in social care, including leaders and managers, need to be able to access ongoing learning and development opportunities if high quality care is to be maintained across the sector.
In October 2023, they published data as part of their state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England report that showed that investing in learning and development for their teams helped care providers to improve staff retention rates.
They found that workers with training recorded had a 31.6% average turnover rate, compared to 40.6% for those who did not have any training recorded.
Formal social care qualifications also made staff less likely to leave their roles, with a 37% turnover rate for care workers with no relevant qualification, compared to a 26.5% rate for those who did have a qualification.
The adult social care sector currently has around 152,000 vacant posts, with a 9.9% vacancy rate and an overall average staff turnover rate of 28.3%.
Keep learning campaign aimed at staff and managers alike
The Keep Learning campaign will run across Skills for Care’s website, social media and other communication channels with the hashtag #KeepLearning used to inform people of what learning and development opportunities are available in 2024.
The learning campaign will cover everything from continuing professional development (CPD) activities, to sector events and will highlight the benefits that training has both for care staff and the people using care and support services.
Skills for Care are also keen to emphasise the importance of ongoing learning and development for new, aspiring and experienced managers in care.
Blogs and real-life insights from learning and development experts and social care providers will populate the learning campaign throughout January and February.
Those in the sector are encouraged to follow the campaign and join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #KeepLearning.
Ongoing learning and development ‘absolutely vital’ for care staff
Skills for Care’s CEO, Oonagh Smyth, explains:
“Ongoing learning and development is absolutely vital for staff at all levels – from people who are brand new to care to experienced senior managers. There are so many benefits of a strong learning culture for organisations and individuals.
“Crucially, ongoing learning and development supports the best quality care for people who draw on support. The sector is currently facing major retention challenges and so the positive impact which learning and development has on staff retention must be utilised.
“We’re excited to again start the new year with our Keep Learning campaign, highlighting the many learning and development opportunities available for social care workers in 2024.”
Skills for Care help to support social care providers and employers with a variety of learning and development and funding opportunities. These include:
- The Workforce Development Fund
- Essential funded training packages
- Learning provider endorsement
- eLearning modules
- The Digital Skills Framework
- Local and national events and networks
Endorsed learning opportunities for social care
First Response Training (FRT) is a leading, national training provider.
They deliver over 7,000 courses each year in the fields of health and safety, first aid, fire safety, food safety, mental health, health and social care and other special focus topics.
Their diverse portfolio includes training awards designed for care workers, such as Infection Control and Prevention, Safeguarding Adults, Duty of Care, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Person Centred Care and Support and many others.
Their course portfolio spans Care Certificate standards, mandatory training awards, clinical skills, special focus courses and higher level training for supervisors and managers.
A Trainer at FRT, says:
“We work with hundreds of health and social care providers each year to deliver important induction, refresher and specialist training for their staff and we are a Skills for Care Endorsed Learning Provider for our classroom, webinar and eLearning training provision.
“All training should be underpinned by the desire to provide safe, effective and compassionate care which leads to improved outcomes for the people being supported. We believe that training should help care workers develop their skills and knowledge to enable them to confidently provide person-centred, dignified care which supports people to lead fulfilling lives that are as independent as possible.
“Our training is mapped to national occupational and CQC standards, as well as relevant legislation and guidance, to ensure it helps care workers progress successfully on their learning and development journey.”
For more information on the training provided by FRT, please call them on freephone 0800 310 2300 or send an e-mail to info@firstresponsetraining.com.