Shared Values: A Value Based Training Practice programme for Health Care Assistants and Support Workers

The recent reports of both Francis (2013) and Cavendish (2013) set out a requirement to develop training and educational pathways for all health care assistants and support staff. A code of conduct for support staff has also been developed by Skills for Health and Skills for Care (March 2013) and the Government have included support staff development as one of 11 national priority projects in their mandate to Health Education England (DOH 2013) and Talent to Care (2013).Support workers make up around a third of the caring workforce and often spend more time with service users than nurses. They are a critical, strategic resource and impact on the quality and safety of the services we deliver. Yet, they are also one of the groups of staff which receive the least investment in education and training and many support workers report feeling undervalued and overlooked. (The Cavendish review: 2013). The challenge for organisations is to ensure that once the right staff are recruited that they are kept up to date with the skills and behaviours that reflect the changing needs of service users. To ensure best practice and quality outcomes, Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Trust are investing non-medical training tariff in the development of support staff that support the teaching and learning of students and apprentices in the practice setting. They prioritise this in tough financial times, knowing that it improves care and staff engagement. ‘‘Healthcare assistants make up around a third of the caring workforce in hospitals, but research suggests that they now spend more time than nurses at the bedside.If the NHS wants to improve patient care, it should see healthcare assistants as a critical, strategic resource. Yet many HCAs feel undervalued and overlooked.’(The Cavendish review: an independent review into healthcare assistants and support workers in the NHS and social care settings 2013)