Our Services NHS Professionals Academy Healthcare Support Worker Development
Branded page banner showing three undisclosed clinicians and text that reads NHS Professionals Academy: growing knowledge, skills and careers.

Healthcare Support Worker Development Training

Our Healthcare Support Worker (HCSW) training solution delivers high-quality training to new-to-care participants, in-line with the Long Term Workforce Plan and the Adult Social Care Workforce Strategy.

Our 12-week training programme aims to prepare the HCSW learner to provide compassionate, safe, and effective care in a range of health settings. Based on a holistic and health enhancing model, we cover the Care Certificate standards. These include communication, safeguarding, mental health, multi-professional working, and reflective practice.

Whether you are an NHS Trust, Integrated Care System or a primary and social care provider, we can work with you to understand your individual requirements and needs. Note if you are looking to apply for the programme as an individual, to begin your healthcare career, please visit our HCSWD applicant page here.

Types of courses available

  • Adult acute
  • Community
  • International adult social care
  • Mental health
  • Children and young people
  • Learning disabilities

 

Contact Academy team

 

Benefits of the service

  • Improved retention through enhanced learning and opportunities for career progression
  • Blended approach to training, utilising expertise from our team
  • Participants achieve the Care Certificate upon completion
  • Continuity of high-quality patient care with a retained workforce
  • Our proven expertise in healthcare training saves time and resource
  • Assists clinical staff by providing in-placement support and assessment

Training includes

  • A blended three-day classroom training course covering the 15 Care Certificate standards
  • Two virtual half-day group educational support sessions
  • One hour per week drop in educational support
  • Support with final practice assessment and sign-off from NHS Professionals Academy Educator
  • Pastoral support to both trainees and Trust mentors during completion of Care Certificate

Note an additional fourth classroom day has been designed to contextualise the learning in diverse and specialist clinical settings including children and young people, learning disabilities, community and mental health. For internationally recruited HCSWs, there is an additional fourth and fifth training day.

Specialist Course Details

This course prepares HCSWs to provide patient care in a range of Mental Health settings. Content includes developing awareness of mental health legislation and policy, conflict management and risk assessments. Learners are also introduced to therapeutic communication, mental health conditions and multidisciplinary working.

This course prepares HCSWs to provide patient care in a community setting with a specific focus on helping support individuals to live independently in their own homes or within a care setting. Specialist content includes palliative care, promoting independence, lone working and supporting hydration and nutrition.

This course has been created to develop HCSWs who support those with learning disabilities, to promote independence, life-skills and wellbeing, provide direct physical care, and support the management of long-term health conditions. The content includes therapeutic communication, mental health conditions, specific health needs and multi-disciplinary working.

Delivered over an additional 2 days, this course has been specifically designed for staff recruited overseas into care roles, who are new to the British care system. This includes details of the care system, highlights variances within the British culture and how these impacts expectations of service users. The importance of culturally appropriate care within the CQC framework is explored with HCSWs reflecting on how to understand and respond to a culture that may differ from their own.

This course contains generic threads for application to specific clinical settings developing HCSWs to provide effective care to babies, children, young people, and their families. This programme includes family focused communication, multi-disciplinary working, recognising the age specific health needs of children and more.


Get in touch

Contact our Academy team today for a consultation to discuss your specific education and training needs.

Contact Academy team