The Trust is committed to the Education, Learning and Development of all it’s staff.
The Learning and Development Department co-ordinates, manages and develops, both continuing personal and professional development, for all trust staff groups and is based at the Uffculme Centre.
The new millennium has seen a major push towards workforce development, driven by Department of Health strategies such as the NHS Plan (DoH, 2000), Working Together - Learning Together: A Framework for Lifelong Learning for the NHS (DoH, 2001), Agenda for Change (DoH, 1999; 2004), the Knowledge and Skills Framework (DoH, 2004) and the 'Improving Working Lives' initiative.
In line with these strategies, the Learning and Development Department have formulated a 'Lifelong Learning and Continuing Professional Development Strategy' for the Trust, laying down the principles, values and objectives of our organisation in this area.
The Department currently coordinates learning and development in areas such as Initial Induction for newly recruited staff, Vocational Training/National Vocational Qualifications and Foundation Degrees for non-registered staff, Essential skills, Statutory and Mandatory Training, Customer Care together with Leadership and Management qualifications for more experienced and senior staff.
Induction
Our Trust runs a three day induction course, to ensure that statutory, mandatory and legal requirements to provide employees with information they need when commencing employment with the Trust are met. Any employee new to the organisation should start their employment with this course.
Leadership and Management Development
Our Trust has developed a framework for Management Development and Leadership Development and is committed to the development of its managers and leaders. In working towards this, our Trust has developed a partnership with De Montfort University to offer the Post Graduate Certificate in Managing Health and Social Care and the Post Graduate Diploma in Health and Social Services Management. The Trust also offers a Certificate in Leadership and Management for First Line Managers accredited by the ILM at level 3 and a Team Leading Qualification at Level 2.
In addition our Trust is heavily involved in leading a project with other Trust's in the Birmingham area to develop a Coaching Collaborative, where organisations across the patch work together to provide Coaching support to Managers at all levels. This is being achieved through rolling out Coaching Skills training both at level 3 and 7 within the qualifications framework and through offering Coaching across Trusts in the Birmingham area.
Vocational Training
Vocational Training within the Trust is seen as a key priority with NVQ’s being offered in Care, Administration and Customer Service.
The majority of NVQ qualifications are offered internally through our own centre accredited with City and Guilds and support is given to staff by our experienced assessors and verifiers.
For candidates who then wish to develop further there is then the opportunity to progress to a foundation degree.
Foundation Degrees were introduced by the Department of Education and Skills (DfES) in 2000 as a way of providing the graduates needed to address the higher technical and associate professional level skills shortages within the labour market.
The course is potentially open to staff from clinical and non-clinical work areas, through the use of role specific pathways.
Essential Skills
Essential Skills Training is offered in partnership with Bournville College enabling staff to gain essential qualifications at key skills 1 or 2 in literacy or numeracy or both. To enter nurse training Key skills level 2 is required these courses are also beneficial for staff contemplating undertaking any NVQ course or period of study.
Core Trainers Forum
The Trust-wide Core Trainers Forum brings together staff who are involved in providing corporate training and discusses how to move forward with Core Learning and Development Issues for example the Trust's direction of travel in areas such as E-Learning and the development of workbooks and materials that support learning and development delivery across our Trust.
