Care company creates skills gap role

Skills gaps are a big issue in care homes. But not for Acacia Training’s clients.

A recent article in The Guardian highlighted the approach that our client, HC-One, is taking to bridge skills gaps in health and social care through the introduction of training and new ‘Nursing Assistant’ roles.

The Guardian featured HC-One employee Sarah Todd, previously a senior care assistant who undertook training such as giving medicines, checking blood pressure and replacing simple dressings as part of her training to become a nursing assistant.

Nine months later, Sarah was promoted from nursing assistant to Care Home manager, showing that training can help with career progression as well as leading to higher standards of care.

We are working with HC-One on the recruitment of more than 150 apprentice carers across the East and West Midlands. Through a 3-year development programme, these new recruits will undertake extensive on-the-job training in order to reach the role of nursing assistant.

Acacia Training works with care and childcare providers to deliver mandatory training and short courses, as well as work-based training to ensure staff are trained regularly. Our Skills for Care accreditation recognises that the training we deliver clearly and directly achieves better standards of care in homes, domiciliary care and health and social care settings.

Sarah is quoted in the article: “Usually it’s nurses who become managers, but after this extra training I felt confident enough to look after a home – I know what the nurses are talking about and I feel confident if I have to challenge them. I just wouldn’t have felt I could do that before as a senior care worker.”

Read the full article here 

Are you a care company looking to upskill or retrain your staff?

We offer mandatory training, distance learning, short courses and fully funded Apprenticeship frameworks for the care and early years sectors.

We work with nurseries and childcare settings, domiciliary care providers, healthcare companies and care homes for vulnerable adults, young people, or the elderly. Find out about our full range of care training here

You can also find out more about the apprentice vacancies we are recruiting for HC-One here.