Westmorland Homecare at Kendal has increased the number of its full-time trainers.
The company, which provides hundreds of hours of care each week to enable elderly and often frail people to live independently in their own home, has appointed a third trainer, Tracy McConnachie.
“Most companies of our size only have one trainer so the fact we have three is testament to our commitment to develop our staff,” said care manager Bernadine Davies.
“Training, support and development are vital in this profession. All staff must have an in-built ability to care but they also have to be confident to be able to deliver the care to the highest-possible standards. Westmorland Homecare is investing to provide high-quality training, something which is also absolutely vital to attract new people to work in the care environment.”
New staff spend their first week at Westmorland Homecare doing theory training to complete The Care Certificate.
The appointment of a third trainer has meant staff now also spend a full day doing in-house practical training on basic skills, such as helping a client to eat, cleaning dentures, administering eye-drops and dealing with catheters and pads, before they go out into the community and shadow existing experienced staff for a period.
A major development in training at the company’s central hub at 18 Highgate has been the opening of a suite, which simulates a client’s bedroom and living room, complete with a bed, chair and dining table.
While one trainee acts as a client, a trainer can teach another moving and handling, washing and dressing techniques and how to transfer a client in and out of a wheelchair and on and off a commode.
“There is a lot of equipment for hoisting so a trainee can experience first-hand how it feels to be hoisted and rolled on a bed,” said Bernadine.
Training also involves observation by trainers of new staff’s work.
The appointment of a third full-time trainer means the trainers can now look at becoming specialists in certain areas, such as end of life care, brain injury and dementia.
This means they will be able to pass that expertise on to the company’s teams so that clients’ needs, which can change and become more complex very quickly, are supported as swiftly as possible.
The three trainers are Sarka Svobodova, Kelly Haygarth and the newly-appointed Tracy McConnachie. The trio also carry out staff appraisals and support team leaders in the community.
It is hoped eventually to be able to offer training externally to other services and perhaps to relatives of clients, who want to learn skills such moving and handling or looking after people with dementia.
Tracy, of Kendal, who started her career as a qualified staff nurse working in a hospital and in the community, joined Westmorland Homecare in August in the scheduling team.
She said: “The attraction of the training role was that is it very varied and enabled me to draw on the skills, knowledge and experience I have gained over the years and put that into practice in supporting other people to develop.”
