Training is key to addressing the staffing crisis the NHS faces - Danny Wild
The staffing crisis facing the National Health Service is now so severe that it is even threatening to overshadow the organisation’s massive funding challenges. Across the country’s NHS trusts there is currently a shortage of more than 100,000 employees - with some 50,000 unfilled roles in the hardest hit sectors, nursing and midwifery.
This is inevitably having a direct impact on the quality of care patients are receiving, while placing massive stress on those members of staff who are having to carry an unsustainable load.
Training is the key tool for addressing this problem, so the government’s plans to invest more than £2.4bn to increase UK-based provision is welcome. The quality of that training, however, and its accessibility to as many people as possible, will be crucial.
That is why further education establishments like ours, at Harrogate College, are investing to upgrade campuses with the facilities and courses required to help anyone interested in a health career make the best possible start.
From the moment we began drawing up plans for our £22m new campus - which is being supported by £20m of Department for Education funding - we made it a top priority to create a building with facilities that would allow us to better support North Yorkshire and our country’s critical sectors, including health and social care, for decades to come.
To that end, our new college building will boast a replica hospital ward, complete with three fully functional medical beds, along with blood pressure monitors, privacy curtains, weighing scales, Zimmer frames, wash basins and the other equipment you would expect to see on an actual ward.
Our focus on equipping our learners with real-world experience also extends to the work we do with our many partner organisations in the health and social care sector - and especially Harrogate Hospital.
Our Health T Level for example, which can lead to a range of skilled careers including nursing, often sees students spending two days a week working on a hospital ward during their second year. We then try to incorporate their experiences on the wards into our teaching at college, so that everyone benefits.
Our partnership work also means that we are acutely aware of the skills shortages currently hampering the fantastic work of the NHS.
To create the numbers needed to rise to the NHS’s workforce challenge will mean appealing to greater numbers of young people who may have a career in health or social care on their radar. With that in mind, we have just created a brand new, two year Level 3 course - the Social Care NCFE CACHE Technical Occupational Diploma - which, like the Health T Level, can also lead to university or nursing but has more of a focus on social care.
This has been designed with more than 20 new units, including in specialised areas like understanding autism, mental wellbeing and end-of-life care, and flexibility built-in so it can be tailored to meet the specific needs of local employers and the particular interests of learners.
Courses like this, and our one-year Access to Higher Education Health and Science Professions programme - for adults aiming to access university to unlock paths into nursing, radiography and more - are all about expanding the routes into health careers. Doing so, while adopting the innovative techniques and technology needed to prepare our next generation of health workers for the challenging and rewarding careers ahead, will be crucial to getting our NHS back on its feet.
Danny Wild is principal of Harrogate College, a member of Luminate Education Group.