Overview
Healthcare Support Workers (HCSWs) play an extremely valuable role in teams, and their learning and development is very important. This framework values their contribution and promotes learning which will support safe, effective and person centered care.
The Development and Education Framework supports the development of core knowledge, skills, and behaviours in the four pillars of practice and is based on the Career Framework for registered staff. It recognises how complex Clinical 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 HCSW Development and Education Framework can be used to support development in current roles and the bridging guidance provides information on how to progress into a registered practitioner role.
Using the HCSW Development and Education Framework
The framework is designed to be used by HCSWs, managers and educators in different ways.
Used by HCSWs to:
- Benchmark current level of practice
- Continue to grow within current level of practice by identifying areas for development
- Guide career development
- Customise a development plan
- Identify evidence to support personal development planning
Used by managers to:
- Support discussions that take place as part of the personal development planning and review process
- Inform succession planning
- Support skills maximisation at every level of practice
- Support service redesign and skill mix
- Map professional development of new employees joining from another area / board / previous employment
Used by educators to:
- Plan and deliver education and training to meet the rapidly changing needs of HCSWs
- Identify opportunities for shared, inter-professional learning
- Describe how education programmes articulate with each other
There are a range of supporting resources available to assist in the use of the framework.