Within the wider health and social care workforce Support Workers are widely dispersed in GP practices, community teams, care homes and provide care at home service.
The Support Worker “voice” is at the heart of our programme of work and is enormously important in keeping NES in touch with what support workers want and need and letting us know if we are getting it right. The HCSW Advisory Group, Associate Practice Educator Network and HCSW Education Network are a big part of connecting us to the support worker workforce to hear the support worker voice.
The Development and Education Framework for level 2-4 Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions (NMAHP) Healthcare Support Workers (HCSWs) recognises how complex NMAHP HCSW roles have become and helps to explain the difference in expectations and learning for NMAHP HCSWs in Career Framework Levels 2, 3 and 4.
The framework supports the development of core knowledge, skills, and behaviours in the four pillars of practice and enables profession specific and specialist knowledge, skills and behaviours to be added for all NMAHP HCSWs working at Levels 2–4. The information presented in each of the Four Pillars of Practice is relevant for any NMAHP HCSW role and should be applied to the setting that the HCSW is working within.
The Scottish Government mandatory Induction Standards apply to all new Healthcare Support Workers (HCSWs) joining NHSScotland and require to be met within the first three months of service (pro rata for part-time workers).
The Induction Standards are made up of fourteen interlinked statements which have been grouped into four clusters to make them easy to apply in the workplace. They offer a way to introduce new information and to support new employees understand their role in relation to:
NES support the Induction Standards with the provision of educational resources which have been developed and reviewed in consultation with stakeholders.
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Contact: hcsw@nes.scot.nhs.uk
X: @NES_hcsw
Last updated: 27/10/2020