Title: A social care workforce for the 21st century: addressing the learning challenges. Lessons from case studies.
1A social care workforce for the 21st century
addressing the learning challenges. Lessons from
case studies.
- Helen Rainbird Elspeth Leeson, Birmingham
Business School, Anne Munro, Edinburgh Napier
University. Presentation to SCWRI, Department of
Health, London 17th November 2009.
2Introduction
- gtResearch project on institutional and
organisational capacity for skill development
2007-2009, funded by Department of Health. - Examined institutional framework (22 interviews)
and 13 case studies (53 interviews). - Focus on good practice organisations all had
won awards/external recognition individual
organisations and consortia arrangements, where
new forms of cooperation emerging at regional
level. - This presentation 5 organisational case studies
focus on lessons to be learned from good practice.
3Structure of paper
- Short description of organisations which had
innovative approaches to managing training - The triggers for innovation extent to which
Care Standards Act was significant/other factors - Fuller Unwins (2004) expansive/restrictive
continuum of learning environments the extent
to which staff are engaged in a range of learning
opportunities which meet the needs of individual
organisation, or meet minimum requirements for
training assessment
4The good practice organisations
- 1. Residential Home (RH)
- Family owned limited company, village location
since mid 1980s, 50 staff, care for 35 residents,
some day care services - Awards care ambassadors scheme
- Owner active at regional level/organising sector
- 2. Community Caring Trust (CCT)
- Private company registered as charity, set up
1997 following public sector cuts, growing from
85-500 staff, 700 service users - Residential day care for elderly, adults
children with physical learning disabilities - 5 day care centres, 35 properties for supported
living - Winner Times Top 100 companies to work for
5The good practice organisations
- 3. The Agency (A)
- Large family company dedicated to charitable
activity, part of a group of companies providing
temporary staff across labour market - Recognised for training CPD of agency workers
- See training as investment gt reputation, former
staff become commissioners of agency workers
6The case study organisations
- 4. The Not for Profit Provider Training
Division (NfPP) - Established mid C19th as charity supplying
surgical devices to the poor. After NHS,
refocused on care of elderly - Four homes providing services for day care,
residential nursing care, 300 staff, 200
residents - National awards for BTEC induction programme, mgt
leadership training - 5. The Dementia Team (DT)
- Council Home Support Dementia Team working with
NHS Trust - 14 staff, with home specialist home support
workers, working in teams of 3 - Skills for Care Accolade for most innovative new
type of worker, national winner of winners
Accolade.
7The case study organisations
- Shared characteristics building of internal
capacity whole organisation approaches,
systematic approach to managing business
training, ethos of care for all workers - Recruit workers for disposition over formal
qualifications and invest in training apart from
DT, rigorous induction - Investment in training seen as reputation
building, an alternative to marketing
8The good practice organisations
- Triggers for innovation
- RH Training quality standard (Investors in
People,1994)gt strategic approach, formalisation,
owner a panel member gt source of learning - DT new types of worker project funding by
Skills for Care gt innovative teamwork using
confident workers who share knowledge of users
needs - A experience of failure need to develop
internal capacity draw down external capacity - CCT recognition that existing mgt systems were
inadequate high levels of absenteeism
fundamentals of HRM - staff have to want to come
to work Top 100 company to work for - NfPP need to meet statutory requirements
- Only NfPP triggered directly, A indirectly by
regulations, DT availability of funding
9The expansive/restrictive continuum of learning
- Expansive learning environments engage staff
fully in a range of learning opportunities
meeting needs of individuals organisation - Restrictive learning environments focus on
immediate, task related training/assessment to
meet regulatory requirements - (Fuller and Unwin, 2004 study of apprenticeship
in the steel industry)
10The expansive/restrictive continuum of learning
environments in care work
- EXPANSIVE
- Assessor as trainer developer
- Assessor as knowledgeable care worker
- Assessor has dual qualification
(assessor/trainer) - Tailored assessment development
- RESTRICTIVE
- Assessor as administrator
- Assessor as administrator
- Assessor has single qualification
- Standardised assessment
11The expansive/restrictive continuum of learning
environments in care work
- EXPANSIVE
- Whole organisation approach
- Training, devpt assessment incorporated into
organisational practice - Internal capacity for assessment training
- Moral/ideological commitment to improvement
maximising staff potential - Employee-driven learning
- Trust in competent employees
- RESTRICTIVE
- Reactive, compliance driven approach
- Training, devpt assessment bolted on
- Organisation relies on external expertise
- Lack of commitment to staff development
- Employees see themselves as just a care worker
- Staff treated as unskilled workers with little
autonomy
12Expansive learning in the good practice
organisations
- Other factors contributing to innovative
approaches - Trust in competent workers who know service
users needs understand their medical
conditions - Sharing of knowledge of users needs
substitutabilitygt quality of service (cf
personalisation agenda danger of
individualisation) - Employee driven training job expansion
- Organisations ability to grow own managers
- Access to educational qualifications for career
development - Training part of package of HRM practices which
include work/life balance particularly
important in reconciling workers needs with
those of service users
13References
- Fuller, A. L. Unwin, 2004. Expansive learning
environments integrating organisational and
personal development in Rainbird et al., Eds.,
Workplace Learning in Context, Routledge/Taylor
Francis.