Since the introduction of a new training strategy in 2006, Walsall Council has greatly improved the quality of health and safety training delivered to care staff across the borough, whilst managing to dramatically reduce costs.
Walsall Council is the borough’s biggest employer, with some 11,000 staff across its five directorates providing services including residential, day care and home care services across the borough.
A New Challenge
Karl Mills joined Walsall Council’s care team in 2006 with a mandate to improve the standard and cost effectiveness of health and safety staff training. As Safety Training Officer, Karl covers all aspects of health and safety, ensuring statutory obligations are met across all sectors, particularly those laid down under the Care Standards Act.
It soon became apparent that there was a major problem with the inconsistency of the training, which stemmed from the lack of coordination of using various training providers. It was also clear that the training received by care staff was not always as relevant to their individual roles as it could be.
Karl explains: ‘Whilst the training was incurring massive costs to the organisation [in excess of £185k a year], staff received various types of information, at different levels, with different interpretations and no common outcomes achieved.’
Karl’s Solution
Karl had begun by undertaking a comprehensive survey of the health and safety training provided across many locations within the borough, including care homes and day centres. His findings led him to conclude that all of the mandatory and corporate training should be coordinated centrally and to deliver much of the health and safety training in house.
Walsall Council was already registered with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), a leading awarding body in health and safety qualifications. This meant that Karl could begin delivering the CIEH QCA accredited health and safety qualifications on-site, instead of using an external provider.
Karl introduced a broad variety of CIEH health and safety qualifications, ranging from level 2 courses designed for all staff through to level 4 courses for managers. CIEH qualifications in stress awareness, manual handling and COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) were also introduced.
Improved Quality
Karl now delivers most of the care team’s health and safety training in house and he is pleased with the increased flexibility this offers. It allows training to be tailored to specific staff members according to their place of work. With all the training centrally coordinated, all staff receive the same high standard of training. In turn, the organisation benefits from increased efficiency and standards of care.
Karl says: ‘With staff attending relevant courses with the same aims and objectives set against the same outcomes, the increase in efficiency has greatly benefited all. Delivering training through one tutor who relates the training and course materials to staff members’ own specific field, and having a trainer who delivers the same to all within that specific area makes common sense.’
Karl also says efficiency is greatly increased by being able to plan and deliver all the relevant training at each individual centre, as this allows managers to alter shift patterns to suit different training needs. Centrally coordinated in house delivery ensures all staff members receive the same high standard of training.
Cost Benefits
In addition to the increase in convenience, consistency and relevance to role of training, costs have been dramatically reduced.
‘It is important to understand that I would not be able to undertake all training by myself,’ says Karl, ‘as there is still need for specialist training. But since I have undertaken the role of safety trainer, I have been able to reduce the cost to the organisation by bringing back in house at least 85% of all the training needs with a projected reduction of costs within the initial six – twelve month period of £47,000.’