Meeting of Medway Workforce Development Partnership (MWDP) 29th April 2008, Maple Room, Municipal Buildings, Gillingham.
1.Minutes & Matters Arising
The minutes of the previous meeting held on Wednesday 12th September 2007, were agreed.
a.14-19 Diplomas in Society, Health & Development
Jacquie Dunn, Head teacher, of Rainham School for Girls able to provide an update on this scheme. The syllabus has now been published and will commence in September 2008. Shortly we will be writing to partners to develop relationships between the schools and local employers as work related learning will be an essential element of the new scheme. Hence the link up with the MWDP. It will be vital to the project that as many as possible employers participate in the project and offer work experience placement for students.
b.SECAS
This is a Skill for Care project established to provide organisations with 250 or less employees with support to identify development plans for both individual employees and the organisation. We have recently requested feedback from members to assess how useful this service has been and all present confirmed very positive remarks with Richard Dinkeldein informing that Investors in People were impressed with the work that had been put into place and would consider this when reviewing The Mortimer Society’s accreditation. Funding for this service ends in June 2008 and it is not yet clear how it will continue/be replaced. The members will be advised accordingly when information is available.
c.NMDS (National Minimum Data Set)
Only four partners have made a start on completing the questionnaire. The Kent & Medway Care Alliance in conjunction with Cranbrook Consultants can assist in the completion of this task.
d.MCA (Mental Capacity Act)
51 Medway independent providers have attended the ‘train the trainer’ programme for Basic Awareness training with a view to transferring their knowledge to their staff and colleagues. Annette Brightman and Jacques Domingue both agreed that the training had been effective and was being implemented throughout their organisations. The ‘trained trainers ‘ have been invited to attend the level 2 (Decision Maker) training.
2.Partnership & College of Social Care Update
We now have an impressive 126 members. Dee was able to report that on average two candidates per course have not attended. This was due to a number of problems varying from sickness, work pressure and attendees feeling out of their depth. It is difficult to report back to managers of any no shows, however Dee would be more than happy to receive telephone calls or emails to confirm staff attendances on the short courses. Wherever possible we do try to fill any remaining places through drop outs, however this can be difficult if an organisation works a shift pattern. In the past we have discussed the possibility of introducing a cancellation charge. We will continue to look at this. A number of partners already had processes in place to reaffirm their staff attendances with Equinox giving presentations at their team meetings, staff evaluations and meetings with managers. Emphasis must be on the employee to make contact in the event that they will not be attending.
We currently have between 6 – 7 Partner organisations accessing the E-Learning and this is proving to be very successful indeed. It is not essential to have access to a work PC as we can offer PODS which operate independently. Any partner wishing to participate in this project can contact Dee (01634 385848 or email deeann.simpson@kcht.org.uk or Tracy on 01634 333061 or email tracy.veasey@medway.gov.uk). We have recently introduced two courses Dyslexia and a 5-day Leadership and Management course.
It was identified that all were experiencing difficulties locating “Dementia” 5 day training courses with certification. A number of possible sources were identified, West Kent College – Canterbury & Christ Church University and Admiral Nurses, Holden Street Rainham and Medway PCT.
3.Funding
We have relied upon the Dept of Health Grant in previous years and have enjoyed the funding we have received. We are pretty hopeful that we can continue in line with last year. We were joined by Cathy Lepage who has been successful in fully funding 57 NVQ’s in Care and 10 Advice & Guidance places. It has become difficult to locate funding for Child Settings NVQ’s, however as the membership of this type of provision has increased recently Cathy will continue to search for funding in this area of specialty.
4.Learning Disability
Richard Dinkeldein reported Skills for Care are giving the opportunity to people who work within a Learning Disability environment to complete a questionnaire within their website entitled Incremental Review for health and Social Care National Occupational Standards Questionnaire. This questionnaire is available through the Skill for Care website (link www.skillsforcare.org.uk/view.asp?id=984). The deadline for completing this survey is Friday 16th May 2008.
5.End of Life/Palliative Care Training (Claire Taylor Medway PCT)
Claire was able to join us from Wisdom Hospice and Claire’s role is to facilitate training (End of Life Care) in Nursing Homes. This project is funded with only one more year remaining and Claire would like to reach as many staff as possible to provide support in dealing with bereavement. All present felt that there is a great need for this provision and should you wish to discuss further with Claire please do so on Claire.taylor@medwaypct.nhs.uk or call her on 01634 830456.
6.Workforce Mapping
The deadline has now passed and as previously agreed we have made a draw for 10 free training places. Two partners were selected to enable them to have 5 places each - congratulations go to Brightlands and Chimnies. At our next meeting in June we should be able to present our findings from this survey.
7.Any Other Business
·We were pleased to welcome Cathy Steinmann from Age Concern, Medway who will be running a Chair Based Exercise Programme later this month (see attached). The course will be delivered on 5 days over a period of 8 weeks and you must be able to attend all days without exception. The course will be run in Medway at a cost of £395. per candidate. We are aiming to set up this course for Sept/Oct 2008. Should you wish to learn more about this then Cathy can be contacted on 01634 811938 or by email cathy@ageconcern-chatham.co.uk
Sharon Perera came along to our meeting to talk to us about Kent & Medway Lifelong Learning Network and the support that she could offer us.
The Kent and Medway Lifelong Learning Network works to enhance the progression for vocational learners into and through higher education. Funded by HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council of England) it is a partnership of 12 education providers in the region with active participation from key stakeholders such as the Sector Skills Councils, the LSC, SEEDA, Aimhigher and Connexions.
The Kent and Medway LLN works with other initiatives such as Train to Gain to engage and support employers in training their workforce. Its activities include providing platforms for dialogue between employers and providers and helps clarify for employers the different types of accredited training available such as foundation degrees, work-based learning, continuous professional development and bite-sized courses.
The LLN is hosting a series of conferences around different themes in education such as the Diploma, Employer Engagement and the Learner’s Voice. For information on the above and more visit www.gohigher.org.uk Should you wish to contact Sharon to discuss further then please call 01227 782981 or email Sharon.Perera@canterbury.ac.uk
Date of next meeting
Tuesday 17th June 2008 at 2.30pm – Rainham School for Girls, Derwent Way, Rainham, ME8 0BX
September 2008 – Date & venue to be confirmed
Wednesday 10th December 2008 at 2.30pm – Venue to be confirmed
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