Health and Social Care (Generic) Support Worker: Background
What is this project about?
This project is about developing the role of support workers who deliver care to older people in the community. The idea is that a new support worker, a Health and Social Care (Generic) Support Worker, will be developed who will be skilled in the delivery of person-centred care and able to meet both health and social care needs.
The overall aim of this project is that in the future older people in the community who have health and social care needs will be supported by Health and Social Care (Generic) Support Workers.
Why did this project come about?
The Welsh Assembly Government ‘Strategy for Older People in Wales’ (WAG, 2003) identified the need to 'develop new flexible user-centred domiciliary services which support and maintain the independence of older people'.
At the moment in Denbighshire support workers who work in the community (as opposed to in hospitals) are either employed by Conwy and Denbighshire NHS Trust, Denbighshire Social Services, or are employed by private organisations who are either profit making or non-profit making (that is private sector or voluntary sector organisations). These support workers tend to either be trained in health care activities or in social care activities. However, many people have both health and social care needs so some people have more than one support worker who comes to support them.
Most people would agree that many service-users, especially older people, would have better health outcomes (get well sooner) if cared for in their own homes when they become unwell. This is because hospitals can be very confusing and disorienting places. After a period in hospital some people find it very difficult to adjust to life at home when they are discharged, so getting better takes longer.
To make sure that people receive the right treatment at home there are often many professionals involved in their care, for example, District Nurses, Specialist nurses, Occupational Therapists, physiotherapists, Social Workers, GPs and many others. The day to day care of people cared for in their own homes is often carried out by support workers working closely with these professionals. The project team believes that service users will be better supported to recover from illness with the help of H&SC Support Workers who understand the work of, and work closely with, all of the professionals involved in their care.
The Health Social Care and Well Being Unit were invited to submit bids for Joint Working Grant funding for projects developing joint working using the 1999 Health Act section 31 flexibilities mechanism [this has since been superseded by the National Health Services (Wales) Act 2006 Section 33]. The bid to develop a Generic Support Worker was approved. This project started in October 2006 (start date of Project Manager) and will finish in March 2007.
How Will We Achieve This: The Project Plan
There are three tasks that we have identified as the most important to make this happen
- Develop an accredited training program for Generic Support Workers
- Employ a small group of Generic Support Workers to make sure that the care delivered is of a very high standard and that this care contributes to better health and well-being and increased levels of independence for service-users. This is called a pilot project.
- Roll out the Generic Support Worker model more widely
What have we done so far?
The very beginning of this project was in December 2005 when the Health Social Care and Well-Being Team submitted the project bid to the Welsh Assembly Government Joint Working Grant Fund.
Following the successful submission of the project bid a project manager was recruited. Tracey English started work in October 2006. This is the work that has taken place to date:
- Recruitment of a multi-agency project team
- Background research has been undertaken, with particularly interest in similar projects.
- Working groups of the project team have been developed and they each work to a detailed action plan covering a specific area of the project.
- An information day/launch was held.
- Six support workers who already have an NVQ level 2 or 3 were recruited onto an 11 week learning opportunity consisting of experiential placements and training days. We have evaluated the learning opportunity, written an evaluation report and made recommendations around the training requirements of a Generic Support Worker.
- We have a better idea of the kinds of things a Generic Support Worker should be able to do in order to support the recovery and care of older people in the community
What are we doing right now?
At the moment we are in the process of planning the pilot project. It will be very important to train a small number of Generic Support Workers and check that the support that they give people in their own homes makes a difference. As part of the evaluation we will talk to the service users and family members who know what this support has meant for them.
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