Last week’s announcement that the Oliver McGowan mandatory training in learning disability and autism received Royal Assent within the Health and Social Care Bill has been greeted as a “lightbulb moment” by Care Minister Gillian Keegan. For those of us working in the learning disability and autism space, the announcement underlines the importance of specialist input whilst training teams in Safeguarding and Person-centred Support.
With so many training providers making a generalised offer of social care courses available cross-sector, I’m here to make the case for hiring a specialist learning disability trainer. A specialist can add value to the lived experience of service users, develop your teams and help maximise the professional reputation of your organisation.
Here’s how:
A specialist learning disabilities trainer will work with you to create bespoke learning solutions tailored to the unique needs of the individuals your team supports. By tailoring the training, your team can discuss specific challenges and receive expert advice and practical suggestions.
This has the potential to transform the physical and mental well-being of service users as well as saving you and your team the hassle of interpreting generic learning before applying it to the individuals you support.
Training offered by a specialist in learning disabilities can directly contribute to compliance with CQC fundamental standards; especially the Person-centred Care, Safeguarding from Abuse and Staffing categories. Compliance, evidenced through your next CQC inspection report, will save you the effort of having to re-visit these standards in detail prior to your next inspection. Training and effective implementation of learning should also result in an improved CQC rating, thus enhancing your reputation within the sector.
Training provided by learning disabilities specialist will enable your team to provide Outstanding care and support. Learning about key policy developments and their application specifically to learning disability support will inspire your team’s confidence to support service users to exceed identified outcomes. This is one area considered when distinguishing between a Good and and Outstanding service. This will improve the status your organisation and save the time of Managers and Quality Assurance team in ensuring practice exceeds minimum CQC requirements.
Specialist learning disability training may have the added value of increasing staff retention. Investing the the development of your team, establishing clear career pathways helps staff feel valued and inspired to use their learning towards career progression, therefore more likely to commit to the organisation.
Continuing Professional Development values each employee, increasing job satisfaction, reducing stress and improving their health and wellbeing. Journeying along the career pathway inevitably leads to promotion for each team member. If staff feel competent and valued, they will stay with you, thus saving you time and money on recruitment.
Having an expert train your learning disability team will improve their professional competence, and evidence that your training is specific to the individuals you support, aiming towards Outstanding at your next CQC visit. An uplift in your inspection rating will improve your reputation, attracting additional business to your services. An improved reputation will increase the profile of your organisation with prospective service users, their families and commissioners. Increased business will bring in additional income to re-invest into services or offer additional incentives to high performing individuals and teams.
To lear more about the bespoke learning solutions offered by Montgomery Simpson, please book in for a virtual coffee: https://calendly.com/montysimp-21/30min
Or to experience a snapshot of how we deliver our training, please join the free Lunch & Learn “Discovering Learning Disability” session:
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