6 minute read
London
Best Practice
Barts Health NHS Trust
Community Works For Health Programme
The Community Works For Health Programme at Barts Health supports local people into lower banded roles. The programme works through:
A talent pool approach for local job-ready candidates who are primed to apply for
Band 2-3 positions.
Providing an apprenticeship route for younger candidates who can apply for a minimum of a 12 month position whilst working towards a learning framework.
All candidates pass functional skills assessments at NHS Information Days and then receive additional pre-employment training if necessary.
A total of 1,500 local people have accessed work at the trust and nearly 10% of staff have come through the Community Works For Health programme. This has allowed them to get jobs they probably would not have been able to access without the programme.
The programme has continued its effort to capture quality candidates from the east London catchment areas by working closely with key referral and training partners from core areas: Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.
A workforce reflective of the local community is one that has a higher retention rate and one that has a greater understanding of local dynamics and needs.
Project Search As part of the Community Works For Health Programme, the trust supports initiatives such as Project SEARCH - an employment scheme for young people with severe learning disabilities.
Tyeres Sule started his Barts Health NHS Trust journey as an intern at Newham Hospital via DFN Project SEARCH. Before starting the project, Tyeres held a qualification in electrical engineering, a field he was keen to explore further. He needed support, however, and his advisor at Newham’s workplace team suggested joining DFN Project SEARCH.
Tyeres then started rotational working within the estates department, initially assisting with small tasks around the hospital. Tyeres stood out as a motivated, hard-working individual with a positive outlook.
His role saw him start earlier than other interns to check the alarms, air conditioning and boilers serving the entire hospital.
His team, and particularly the manager of estates, were so impressed with his dedication and commitment that they decided to create a position for him where he could be a permanent member of the team, with the opportunity to progress into a managerial role.
COVID-19 delayed the start of the role, yet he stayed positive and engaged by creating a routine for himself. He continued revising theory as well as developing mock circuits to practice with electricity flow at home. Tyeres is now an electrical craftsman apprentice; working while studying one day a week on a level 4 electrical course.
Aqib, another DFN Project SEARCH participant, began working at Whipps Cross Hospital in 2015 as a health records clerk.
He describes the project as “life changing”; helping to build his confidence and overcome barriers. “I learnt about the hospital and departments through my placements” he says.
“My first placement was in the medical records department. I have unique skills with numbers, and I wanted to work here with the records. Project SEARCH eventually helped me get that job.
“Project SEARCH was life changing for me. Before the programme I didn’t speak with anyone unless I had to. I wasn’t confident enough.”
Best Practice
North East London NHS Foundation Trust
Pandemic response
North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) significantly increased the size of its bank of temporary staff during the pandemic to meet the requirements of the NHS Nightingale Hospital London and the mass vaccination sites. Several of these individuals have been able to take up substantive posts or clinical apprenticeships within NELFT.
The staff working at the hospital came from a range of backgrounds, with 41 percent living in areas within the lowest three Indices of Multiple Deprivation. Fifty percent of staff were black, asian or minority ethnic and 57.4 percent were female. Fourteen percent were not in employment or training before they joined the NHS Nightingale Hospital London.
Half of these staff reported that they were more likely to remain in healthcare following their experiences of working at the hospital. Three quarters of the workforce reported that they were interested in further training, development or career opportunities in health and social care after their Nightingale experience and a significant number registered to complete the Care Certificate with NELFT. Varied paths into job opportunities NELFT offers a number of volunteer and work experience programmes, as well as a full range of apprenticeships and Final Student Placement Programmes, through collaboration with the National Apprenticeship Service, further and higher education Institutions and professional bodies.
Through partnerships with local colleges, the trust aims to engage with and recruit young people and identify ‘hard to reach’ demographics.
It has now trained over 100 Health Ambassadors, as part of its schools and colleges outreach work and is beginning to work with Care City.
This project has delivered 21 virtual and face to face careers events, including a virtual careers week, supporting 1,600 participants to consider future careers in health and social care. To date it has recruited seven young people to the Young Persons Panel and held three employer engagement workshops.
Best Practice
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Ensuring fair career progression The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust has invested in a career development platform, which is open to all staff members and includes comprehensive career pathways for each professional group, as well as hundreds of training resources focused on enhancing soft skills.
Alongside this, a number of professional career pathways enable staff in a range of professions to view the future options for career progression that are available to them.
Enabling values-based Leadership and Management development at all levels is one of the core priorities set out in the trust’s Education and Training Strategy.
In line with this, The Royal Marsden offers a wide range of management and leadership programmes to support the development of those in more senior roles. The offer includes short courses, individual modules and accredited programmes, with different initiatives aimed at aspiring managers, future leaders, first line managers, middle managers, senior managers and senior leadership teams.
These leadership and management development pathways help staff explore development opportunities available to them at The Royal Marsden.
The trust has created new posts such as Nurse Assistants, that bridge gaps and allow for career progression for entry level healthcare professionals, as well as supporting a small number of healthcare assistants to achieve their nursing degrees whilst still in employment. Coaching and mentoring Coaching or mentoring for all staff at the Royal Marsden is offered through a network of internal coaches and mentors and it also supports staff in finding mentors outside the organisation. In 2021/22 14 staff took part in mentoring and 26 undertook coaching.
While establishing internal coaching, mentoring and shadowing programmes, the Trust sought expressions of interest directly from staff in underrepresented groups via its various staff networks.
Refreshing its coaching and mentoring offer enabled several staff to access opportunities, with 45 per cent of the applications received coming from black, Asian and ethnic minority staff. It also regularly promotes opportunities, both within the trust or externally via regional networks, such as the NWL BAME Nurse development programme.
