The pilot of the latest version of our Doctors Rostering System is going well and although too soon to make specific financial forecasts, the pilot site is achieving:

• a dramatic reduction in the use of agency locums with ongoing savings
• reduction in management costs due to reduced duplication of work
• standardisation of rates of pay for internal locum cover
• adoption of our new DRS Rostering System as a trust QIPP project
• a better view on a day to day basis of staff availability to cover absences
• centralised control of medical rosters in the medical staffing team, allowing a view of activity across the whole trust and optimise the use of staff between departments
• improved trainee doctors’ access to training by using their time more effectively, freeing up time for education and allowing medical staffing and consultants to work more closely with the trainees to improve the educational appropriateness of their rostered work
• positive change the way the service is delivered, by placing trainees in ward teams rather than consultant teams
• improved communication between teams, consultants, managers and ward staff by providing a central repository of contact details, which staff are committed to keeping up to date because they see direct benefits to themselves by doing so
• data from the system to show evidence and the benefit to be gained from changing the way staff are deployed in the long term.

Plus

• by using an existing member of staff for a locum shift they can rely on knowledge of local ways of working, an increased sense of accountability for the work done, better continuity of care, and re-investment of savings in other areas of patient care
• the trust being more responsive in the way it deploys staff through better visibility of demand and availability and better communication to staff
• the system is proving popular with doctors as it increases the transparency and fairness of the way rosters are managed. The balanced distribution of work driven by the requirements of the service is evident. Doctors can request swaps and leave and view the roster from home or their smart phone.

Strong demand for Skills for Health services

Almost 400 senior managers attended Skills for Health’s seven road shows across the UK during May and June. Each event provided an opportunity to discuss local health workforce and skills issues and explore the solutions available from Skills for Health.

Every event was oversubscribed and delegates rated the majority of sessions as ‘very’ relevant. More than 120 employers requested further information on topics ranging from apprenticeships and e-learning to role re-design and Labour Market Intelligence services.

If you weren’t able to attend but would like to know about what was covered, or about future events, contact your local Skills for Health lead.

Bookings are now open for the next event, which is in Northern Ireland on 28 September at the Hilton Hotel Templepatrick. Places are available on a first-come, first-served basis for qualifying delegates, so book now to avoid disappointment by visiting our website.

The Skills Passport for Health project has been boosted by the award of £400,000 from the new Employer Investment Fund (EIF) run by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.

The Skills Passport is a UK and health sector wide record of an individual’s career history, current skills and training. It can increase the speed at which staff could begin in a new post and offers substantial financial savings by reducing unnecessary training duplication.

The EIF award will cover development such as the underlying skills frameworks, initially for statutory and mandatory training but also for clinical skills, as well as technical aspects of the project.

The project was one of several which were awarded funding. Skills minister John Hayes said: “These projects are exactly the type of partnership working needed between Sector Skills Councils and their sector employers, to bring new investment in skills and tackle future skills gaps.”

The project has already been successfully piloted, with the first full implementation in the North West of England due by the end of March 2012. There will be initial releases within the region towards the end of this year and the beginning of next. Implementation in other areas of the UK will follow during 2012 and 2013.

In April, the RCN congress signalled overwhelming support for the Skills Passport when it voted with an 85% majority to lobby for the Passport to be implemented across the NHS and other sectors where nurses are employed.

Back to top

As one of the UK’s leading providers of e-learning for the health sector – with over 250,000 registered learners - Skills for Health offers quality-assured online training to help you maintain a safe and competent workforce.

And with a wide range of mandatory subjects, our courses can be a powerful means of demonstrating your compliance with essential regulatory standards.

Courses such as Infection Control, Food Nutrition & Hydration and Health & Safety all contribute directly to evidence required for regulation – with learners’ progress tracked and recorded within our secure system. These courses deliver compelling evidence that you’re taking the steps needed to deliver a safe and high-quality service.

All courses are delivered via Skills for Health’s flexible online platform, letting staff learn at their own pace, at a time and place that is convenient. This online flexibility makes it easy for staff to access essential training, and can also dramatically reduce your training costs whilst maintaining staff availability.

To give a few examples (though there are many others) our courses include:

To find out more, view our full range of courses online or get in touch and we will set up a free trial for you, so you can ensure our courses meet your needs.

If you would like further information please contact us at clpu@skillsforhealth.org.uk by phone on 0845 330 6507 or visit www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/e-learning.

To give you a clear picture of how we can help you tackle your workforce challenges we've gathered key information on all our services and solutions in one place.

The newly revised and updated Improve Quality and Productivity is a summary of all our services, covering everything from training courses and elearning to new role design and wholesale service redesign.

Find out:

To download an electronic version, or to order your free printed copy, visit our website.

Prime Minister David Cameron hosted a 10 Downing Street reception as part of Carers Week, jointly sponsored by Skills for Health and Skills for Care. The event provided a focal point to highlight the important role that carers play in their communities and society as a whole.

The Prime Minster told carers that government must commit its money, show more understanding and back personalisation. Mr Cameron paid tribute to the work undertaken by carers and pledged to simplify the bureaucracy experienced by carers. Skills for Health and Skills for Care met with Mr Cameron and his ministers, and highlighted the work that has been undertaken in training for staff who work with carers, in order to better improve their experience of services.

The new report Carers Matter – Everybody’s Business was officially launched on the 13 June as part of Carers Week.

As a result of the work by Skills for Health, Skills for Care and others, the government has said that Carers Matter – Everybody’s Business “Will enable commissioners to devise bespoke training for their local health and social care workforce” (Recognised, Valued and Respected; Next steps for the carers Strategy HM Govt 2010).

Carers Matter – Everybody’s Business is available on our website.

There are over half a million people in the UK with autism, a lifelong developmental disability that affects how they communicate with, and relate to, other people.

In another piece of joint working, Skills for Health, Skills for Care and the National Autistic Society have launched a new online resource to enhance awareness of autism and improve skills among workers in both health and social care services.

This work is part of a wider range of online training resources funded by the Department of Health England to increase awareness and understanding of autism across all public services.

The resource enables individual workers, or services and teams to assess their knowledge and skills for providing a high quality service to people who have autism, and develop training and development to meet any gaps.

This work brings greater integration to working with people with autism by translating policy into service delivery, linking the knowledge and skills to Qualification Credits Framework (QCF) units and connecting service delivery across acute and community care settings.

For more information, please visit the autism service area on our website.

Back to top

With health sector organisations both commissioning and providing staff learning and development, we asked employers at the recent engagement events if they were interested in a training quality mark. The answer was a resounding yes, because it would:

The majority of those interviewed were keen to contribute to developing and testing the quality mark.

In response we have prioritised development of the quality mark and are actively seeking funding through a variety of options. We’ll keep you up to date with progress in future editions of the newsletter.

Every NHS organisation across SW England has started accessing the new Learning4Health virtual learning environment.

The innovative platform is designed to ensure that NHS staff in the region have the right skills and competences to deliver effective patient care and services now and in the future.

The South West Strategic Health Authority awarded the service contract to a consortium of Skills for Health, King’s College, Bazian, Tribal Consulting, and with Capita as the lead company; for the next five years.

As the experts in competence based approach to health services, Skills for Health is identifying and mapping the National Occupational Standards required to deliver agreed pathways of care. This approach ensures that learning is patient and service focused, and is transparent and transferable for those working in health in SW England.

Learning content will be structured across seven key clinical pathways:

To find out how Skills for Health could help you develop flexible, effective training solutions, please contact your local Skills for Health lead, click here for details.

Back to top

For organisations in the public sector these are turbulent and challenging times with managers in the NHS, as in other public services, now facing the reality of job cuts.

The paradox is that this is exactly the time when the experience and talent of NHS leaders and managers will be needed most, not just to take the service through this transition period but also to respond to the challenges facing healthcare.

Skills for Health is working with Skills for Care, Skills Third Sector and a range of other partners to develop a new social market place to connect talented people with transferable skills to new opportunities across the UK.

Called ‘Workonit.org’, we are developing a web based initiative that will offer individuals an innovative package of services based around five platforms:

The initiative is much more than just the traditional jobs site, instead the focus is on bringing together a range of different services into a one stop shop for people looking for support as they take the next steps in their working lives.

The website is currently in development and registration, which is free, is open now at www.workonit.org.

New Apprenticeship Certification Claim Forms for England

A reminder that as of 13 April 2011 the Regulations associated with Apprenticeship Certification changed. In order to comply with these regulations apprentices (or providers on their behalf) must use the Apprenticeship Certification Claim Forms for England. If you are running any apprenticeship schemes, the certificate can be found here. Please be aware that requests for Certification received on previous forms will not be accepted.

About us

Skills for Health (SfH), is the employer-led Sector Skills Council for the health sector, serving the NHS, independent and voluntary sectors (2.1m employees throughout the UK). SfH was relicensed in 2009 with an ‘outstanding’ contribution to workforce redesign. We are the authoritative voice on skills issues for the health sector and offer employers proven workforce solutions and tools – with the expertise and experience to use them effectively.

Visit www.skillsforhealth.org.uk

To sign up for our newsletter please visit: http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/newsletters

If you do not wish to receive this Newsletter from Skills for Health in the future, please select this unsubscribe link or contact Skills for Health directly.

Please note that the links are correct at the time of publication but websites are constantly being changed so the links given may become out of date. Skills for Health does not claim any responsibility for contents of other websites/publications.