London Councils 30th March 2012 Lesley Reed – Apprentice Manager

What we created We took our first apprentices in January 2009, and have continued to have two groups of apprentices every year and have had about 50 apprentices overall We are about to recruit a further 12 apprentices in July 2012, and September 2012 Apprentices do four days on the job training and one day a week at college to fulfil the technical certificate, QCF Framework at Level 2 and and functional skills in (numeracy and literacy). Apprentices are paid a training allowance for their year’s apprenticeship

Background… why apprentices Barking and Dagenham has a history of young people who are NEET (not in education, employment and training) and we wanted to demonstrate our commitment to supporting young people. The care sector locally and nationally is one of the only growth industries, and our significant work on personalisation has created new opportunities for personal assistants through personal budgets and we have about 500+ people who are buying their own care. We had an ageing workforce of carers who are 50+ and wanted to inject some youth and vitality into the service. Our commitment to intergeneration from a community safety perspective has broadened horizons of young and old in developing an understanding of the issues

What do apprentices do Our apprentices work across the range of services that the council continues to provide this is reablement, extra care, day care and residential care. For the first 3-6 months they work alongside an existing very experienced care worker who effectively is their ‘buddy’ and they oversee the day to day work and provides advice to managers about their progress and where they may need further training. We developed an in house competency framework and once they are competent at this we then arrange for them to work their own schedule under close supervision. This normally happens after about six months however, our latest groups had some real high flyers who were competent within three months.

The benefit of apprentices to Barking and Dagenham They have brought a renewed enthusiasm and drive to services and service users reap the benefits of this in their outlook. They are a source of regeneration for the service when existing staff are at retirement age. From a personal perspective they are breaking down the barrier of whole generations of families locally who have never worked. Often they are the only person in their family working. They are a diverse workforce with many skills who are able to plug the gaps in terms of what the market needs with personalised services.

How have the apprentices benefited The most immediate benefit is their growth in self confidence, aspirations and interpersonal skills. They have gone on to other health and social care related careers such as a nurse, theatre nurse and some are now supervisors in care settings in the independent sector. They are earning and are learning to be self sufficient and not in the benefit system.

The key lessons for any care provider Having a dedicated manager who can co-ordinate the whole scheme has been invaluable and provides the apprentices with much needed consistence in approach. That you will need to tackle absence, sickness, attitude and interpersonal skills with pretty much all of them in varying degrees but it is very easy to turn this around with faith in them. That apprentices require a significant investment in building their self confidence, morale and developing their understanding of the world of work and all its tribulations. That sometimes you just have to admit defeat and go with your instinct that this is not going to work and the crucial period is the probationary period. We have extended probations on a regular basis when we are just not sure. That you need to be super nanny, mother hen as well as a manager.

The future We were keen to ensure our apprentices are equipped to work not just in local authority care services but are able to be ‘work ready’ for the range of opportunities available. Despite the council’s austerity measures we are still supporting apprentices because we value their input and are committed to continuing the support. Supporting the development of our ex apprentices in developing a social enterprise for personal assistants (10 ex-apprentices interested in this project)