High Quality Education for Healthcare Support Workers Angelo Varetto – Head of NOS, Qualifications and Apprenticeships, Skills for Health

Who We Are Skills for Health is the Sector Skills Council, for all health employers; NHS, independent and third sector. Everything we do is driven by employer skills and workforce needs. We help in three ways: –firstly, we provide tested solutions and tools to help improve productivity and quality –secondly, we directly support employers to plan and manage workforce development and change –thirdly, as the employers’ authoritative voice on skills issues, we represent the views and champion the effective investment in skills that employers need.

What is a Healthcare Support Worker? Job title that covers a huge range of roles at Career Framework Level Nationally agreed definitions in Scotland and Wales but not in England or NI For this presentation the term applies to those in roles that support regulated healthcare occupations in direct delivery of patient care and includes Assistant Practitioners

Current Education Provision QCF qualifications at Levels 2 – 5 e.g. Level 2 or 3 Diploma in Clinical Healthcare Support or Level 2 or 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care Scottish Vocational Qualifications Foundation Degrees, HE Certs & HE Dips Apprenticeship frameworks in each country Education accredited with HEI’s and QCF AO’s Quality Assured Lifelong Learning in the CQFW SCQF Credit and Levelled learning In –house training

Education Policy NHS/ DH Policy Drivers Increasing divergence in education policy DfES & BIS policy drivers in England –Technical Baccalaureates –Richard Review of Apprenticeships in England –Whitehead Review of Adult Vocational Qualifications Funding policies –Impact of 24+ Advanced Learning Loans in England QCF Regulation – England, Wales and NI

How to Define High Quality Education? Impact on quality of care Quality of the learning experience Portability/ transferability Employer investment Delivered through: –Regulated/ validated qualifications? –Accreditation? –External quality assurance of the training delivery?

Current Priorities Cavendish workstreams in partnership with Skills for Care and HEE –Fundamentals of Care –QA of training provision –Career progression –Review of Code of Conduct and NMTS to apply to all Healthcare Support Worker roles in health Supporting the HEE Band 1 – 5 Strategy Development of new qualifications and Apprenticeship frameworks where there is a need and business case Supporting the review of the Health and Health & Social Care QCF unit review

Skills for Health Perspective Regulation/ validated of qualifications and associated QA Quality Assurance of the provider e.g. SfH Quality Mark Employer led partnership working Maintaining transferability between: –Employers –Health and Social Care –nations Maintaining, building, strengthening progression routes

Current and Future Opportunities/ Challenges Impact of changes to funding policies Progression into HE e.g. Advanced Apprenticeships into Nursing Degree Divergent education policies and increasing differences in qualifications and Apprenticeship frameworks across UK Changes to Apprenticeships in England Potential Impact of Whitehead Review of Adult Vocational Qualifications in England Managing potential/ actual proliferation of qualifications

Thank You