How Beginning my Career as a Support Worker Taught Me the Multiple Benefits of Fundamental Core Skills Training

Bluebird Care’s Head of Learning and Development, Nick Griffiths, on how embedded core skills training can support quality and compliance, staff wellbeing, and customer satisfaction.

About twenty years ago, I sat down for my first day of training as a Support Worker in a local care home. The training consisted of sitting in a small office reading three lever arch files over three days, which included everything from day-to-day expectations to insurance policies. At the end of the three days of reading, I signed a form to say I had understood everything – and then I was out in the world as a Support Worker.

The roles we do in care are very rarely ‘sit still and read’ roles. So, we cannot expect the people who step into those roles to be able to thrive in careers with ‘sit still and read’ training approaches. Moving up into managerial roles as Deputy and then Registered Manager in learning disabilities services, it became clear just how important embedded holistic training is – for staff, employers and, most importantly, people who we support.

As Head of Learning and Development for Bluebird Care, I built in a holistic approach to training for all our franchisees so that every training module includes a degree of core numeracy and literacy skills development. It is really important to me that we don’t have anyone in the Bluebird Care family who might feel hesitant about continuing their personal and professional development as a result of not feeling confident enough about their core mathematical or literacy skills.

Care is a fantastically rewarding job, but it can be challenging, and home care in particular can involve a great degree of solo working which can bring its own nuances. So, we will always take any chance to remove a bit of stress in what some might think of as the ‘basics’: ensuring that our teams and potential new team members feel supported to develop truly well-rounded skills with us.

Though Care Assistants must of course have an assessed ‘good’ level of literacy and numeracy, we know that that doesn’t always translate to on-the-job confidence to progress to the next level of responsibility – for example managing fluid intake charts or calculating medication dosages. So, by embedding these skills in every aspect of training we are continuing to allow people to thrive with confidence in their current roles as well as opening doors to progression either with us or elsewhere in the sector – ultimately creating a more sustainable workforce.

Beyond improving staff confidence (which is closely linked to wellbeing at work), our holistic training offer goes hand-in-hand with excellent compliance and quality. By embedding bespoke core skills training across all parts of our organisation, we can say, hand on heart, that we have designed a programme of learning and development that supports people to be their absolute best at work: equipped with skills that are uniquely tailored to their role in a fuller sense than ‘tick box training’. At Bluebird Care we’re fortunate that everyone in our Quality Team has a background in care and support. That means that we know what it really takes to be supported to thrive and deliver excellent quality care ‘on the ground’ and our approach to quality and training reflects that.

Ultimately, our priority will always be the people we support and their families, and so we know that all our staff training has to fully support that priority. Equipping people with greater literacy core skills, or improving their confidence in these areas, can result in really meaningful outcomes for our customers and their families, such as enhanced care records. The difference between a ‘tick box’ care record and a meaningful, clearly written, reflection of how a person feels and has responded to their care, can be immense for the family or loved ones of a person we support. And sometimes, we

know that that difference can be made by how literacy skills have been embedded into care records training to ensure that they are as clear and fulsome as possible.

There doesn’t have to be a binary between core fundamental skills training ,in areas which are not typically associated directly with care, and ‘on the job’ practical learning and development. When we bridge that gap throughout everything we do to support staff with their development, we empower people and really meaningfully engage them in their own training. But we also create a more supportive working environment that is all about delivering great quality care for the people who matter most