NHS support workers, such as nursing Healthcare Assistants, Maternity Support Workers, and Therapy Assistants, often provide the majority of face-to-face care to patients, clients and their families. This accessible guide explores the issues underpinning their recruitment, training, management, development and progression. NHS support workers comprise four out of ten of the clinical workforce, yet despite their importance they have long faced barriers that mean they are not able to fully realise their potential. This is the first book to take a comprehensive look at this workforce, its history, the policy that shapes its recruitment, management and deployment, and explains clearly how their capacity and capability can be safely and effectively enhanced. Structured around the employment cycle, this text covers the introduction of Technical Levels, career changes, apprenticeships, recruitment and selection, informal learning, learning cultures, widening participation, supervision and functional skills. Providing practical, evidence-based guidance and including illustrative case studies, it suggests a range of interventions to overcome the long-standing barriers to the effective development and deployment of healthcare support workers. Drawing on the latest research, and practice, including the author's own experience, this book is an important resource for all those educating, managing or recruiting unregistered healthcare practitioners. It will also provide invaluable guidance to healthcare support workers interested in progressing their careers.

NHS support workers, such as nursing Healthcare Assistants, Maternity Support Workers, and Therapy Assistants, often provide the majority of face-to-face care to patients, clients and their families. This accessible guide explores the issues underpinning their recruitment, training, management, development and progression. NHS support workers comprise four out of ten of the clinical workforce, yet despite their importance they have long faced barriers that mean they are not able to fully realise their potential. This is the first book to take a comprehensive look at this workforce, its history, the policy that shapes its recruitment, management and deployment, and explains clearly how their capacity and capability can be safely and effectively enhanced. Structured around the employment cycle, this text covers the introduction of Technical Levels, career changes, apprenticeships, recruitment and selection, informal learning, learning cultures, widening participation, supervision and functional skills. Providing practical, evidence-based guidance and including illustrative case studies, it suggests a range of interventions to overcome the long-standing barriers to the effective development and deployment of healthcare support workers. Drawing on the latest research, and practice, including the author's own experience, this book is an important resource for all those educating, managing or recruiting unregistered healthcare practitioners. It will also provide invaluable guidance to healthcare support workers interested in progressing their careers.

While substantial advances have been made in the L&D profession over the last decade, evaluation remains by far the weakest part of the L&D cycle. Most organisations wish to evaluate the impact of their investment in training but few do it well, and the lack of effective methods is one of the key barriers. Complete Training Evaluation addresses these issues by providing practitioner friendly but academically robust information and guidance on how to evaluate all forms of learning and development. It draws on the author's own multidisciplinary research along with his practical experience of working with private and public sector organisations carrying out evaluation. The book provides practitioners with accessible 'how-to' knowledge and tools to undertake evaluations of both formal and informal learning. Full of case studies and practical examples of application of methods and insights, Complete Training Evaluation equips practitioners with a range of approaches that can be used depending on the training programme, capacity and capability. An online supporting resource includes a bank of evaluation questions grouped around particular aspects of training.