Healthcare Assistant Development Programme for Paediatric Healthcare Support Workers

A Healthcare Assistant Development Programme was developed by Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in 2012. Designed for healthcare assistants (HCAs) based in paediatric community, clinical or voluntary settings it is a bespoke, standardised qualitative development programme, mapped to national and local standards of care.It is an enabler for the HCA to examine how they apply the basic fundamentals of care practice, and how this is received by patients and families in terms of their personal experiences. As such it is a catalyst for “small change big difference” thinking.Update – August 2014: Since this case study was first published in December 2013, the Healthcare Assistant Development Programme has been given officialOfqual accreditation as a Cache Level 3 Award. It is now possible for healthcare assistants to gain a certificate and diploma in healthcare support in the paediatric setting.