- Conference
- 2014 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 7 December 2013
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes the hard work of the union in campaigning and working in partnership with NHS employers, the Department of Health, Skills for Health to improve training and make development opportunities available for NHS staff, particularly staff on lower bands, have paid off. Last year through partnership working the Social Partnership Forum Learning for Life Campaign was launched.
Conference notes the main objectives of the campaign include stimulating greater awareness; increasing participation in learning at work for all NHS staff, especially those in bands 1-4 and reinforcing the belief that investment in staff learning is an investment in the services.
Conference welcomes this campaign and gives full support to learning in the workplace. In a climate of much change within the NHS staff need to have access to good quality learning and training that properly equips them to undertake their role and also have the confidence to act in the patients’ best interests.
To make good of this campaign employers will need to link training and development to the Knowledge, and Skills Framework. Evidence has shown that when staff receive good quality appraisal this impacts positively on the patient experience and the quality of health outcomes.
This campaign goes some way in addressing Robert Francis’ recommendations which called for staff to be equipped with the required skills and competences to deliver a high quality of care so as to prevent a recurrence of the failures evidenced at Mid Staffordshire.
Conference notes another milestone which involved the signing of a learning agreement with NHS Property Services. This agreement is the first one of its kind with a national body in NHS in England. The agreement seeks to support union learning representatives’ role and address learning needs for non English speaking staff and the importance of good quality apprenticeships. This agreement will provide career opportunities and training and development for many of our members who work in NHS Property Services.
Conference calls on the Health Service Group Executive to:
1)promote the recruitment of union learning representatives;
2)raise awareness of the Learning for Life Campaign and NHS Property Services Learning Agreement at local level and to promote partnership working around learning to other employers as a model of best practice;
3)continue to use the KSF process to identify the training needs of our members and support them in their learning, utilising union learning representatives to help build members and potential members’ confidence to participate effectively in their KSF review process;
4)survey members about their experiences of the Learning for Life Campaign and NHS Property Services learning agreement to inform our work around learning for operational service staff;
5)encourage and support branches to engage with employers around the introduction and delivery of apprenticeship schemes, to ensure that the training provided meets approved standards and that the rights and working conditions of apprentices and existing staff are protected.