This is a guest post from Bebhinn Browne at West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
Between 2020 and 2021, the West Yorkshire (WY) Health and Care Partnership developed a training programme to support health and care staff across the region to expand and refresh their knowledge of personalised care. In this post, Bebhinn Browne, explains how they went about it.
WY Health and Care Partnership Personalised Care Programme secured £263,000 of funding from NHS England to deliver a training programme to upskill our health and care workforce, volunteers and link workers in personalised care approaches between September 2020 and March 2021 which would deliver vital support to address inequalities and the needs of our most vulnerable communities during COVID-19 and beyond.
A key deliverable of the COVID-19 recovery plan for WY&H HCP’s Personalised Care Programme was to commission training providers to deliver a range of training modules and follow up support to the wider personalised care work force including; social prescribing link workers, care coordinators, health and wellbeing coaches, nursing, medical and allied health professional staff, local authority staff and those working or volunteering in VCSE organisations across the region.
The training was key to supporting being able to give people time, focusing on ‘what matters to me’ and taking a holistic approach to people’s health and wellbeing.
Key Outcomes of the Training Programme
- To address inequalities which have widened during COVID-19 by supporting the development and embedding of digital approaches and in doing so, support, connect and encourage more of our communities to access support online.
- To ensure our health and care workers are confident and skilled in using personalised care approaches and embedding personalised care approaches into the health and care workforce
- To integrate the additionality of social prescribing roles and support sustainability and growth of our link workers, volunteers and paid voluntary sector workforce.
It was essential that the training programme would enable us to develop a skilled personalised care workforce across our health and care partnership. The aim was to support the resilience and transformation of our health and care services by providing an opportunity to expand upon key skills that are essential when looking to embed personalised care. The training was informed by the PCIs curriculum.
How the programme was developed
The West Yorkshire (WY) Personalised Care Workforce Training offer was developed using funding received from NHSE as part of the MOU process. This training programme was developed and delivered at ICS level to maximise economy of scale, bring flexibility in training delivery, and support the needs of the workforce across our locality.
A Task and Finish group was developed to support the creation, procurement and roll-out of training. The group was made up of representatives from key work streams including:
- Personalised Care place leads
- NHSE/I colleagues
- Local Authority colleagues
- Workforce colleagues at ICS and place level
- VCSE colleagues at place
- ICS programmes – Children and Young People, Mental Health Learning Disabilities and Autism, Harnessing the Power of Communities, Improving Population Health
Our place leads for personalised care were involved in the planning and delivery stages to provide oversight on place-based needs, priorities, and challenges. The collaboration of this group of people led to the development of a cohesive programme that’s been successful in delivering clinician and patient satisfaction. The programme included:
A total of 12 training modules, delivered through online workshops, focus groups and webinars were divided into core training levels; foundation, intermediate, supervision & leadership skills and specialist training and included the following;
- Foundation: Foundation Active Signposting, Foundation Level Health Coaching, Digital Inclusion
- Intermediate: Motivational Interviewing & Health Coaching, Wellbeing and Resilience, Intermediate Active Signposting
- Supervision and Leadership Skills: MDT Working, Supervision, Mentorship and Coaching
Specialist Training: Level 3 Accredited Social Prescribing Training, Advance Care Planning and Bereavement Support
Link Workers Training – this supported the development of skillsto connect people to statutory Services and community groups
Advanced Care Planning Training – this course also equipped learners toconnect people to statutory Services and community groups
Level 3 Accredited Social Prescribing Training – Supporting new roles and embedding within the Primary Care Network to address social isolation and develop Personalised Care within communities
Wellbeing and Resilience Training/Coaching– 102 attended the course
Supervision and Leadership Skills – 93 attended the course.
A process for gaining Expressions of Interest (EOI) for training spaces and allocating these spaces was developed and shared widely across West Yorkshire. People completed an expression of interest and were allocated training places through the Workforce Training Task and Finish Group and the Personalised Care Place Leads.
The impact on care
From 2020 to 2021, the training reached over 450 health, social care and VCSE staff and volunteers. Taking key learnings, we’ve been able to further develop a training programme for 2021/22 and reach 1000 health, social care and VCSE staff and volunteers.
By delivering this programme, we’ve been able to address social issues and work towards equitable access. By developing a team of 72 digital champions, we have a workforce that thinks about how to address social isolation and digital exclusion.
What’s next?
To create and support sustainability, those who participated in the training have been approached to join the ‘connecting communities’ peer network’. This will support those who have completed or are due to undertake training to share and spread learning to effect change to make Personalised Care business as usual within the region. Additional resources, such as the PCI’s free quality assured courses and resources, can also be signposted to for those who would like to access additional learning or a refresher.