What is a Health and Social Care Support Worker?

Health and Social Care Support Workers will be trained to work with older service users in the community who have both health and social care support needs.

What are ‘Support Needs’?

Support needs are those needs that do not need a qualified professional like a social worker, a nurse or an Occupational Therapist, but can be carried out to a high standard by a well trained support worker. Support workers are usually trained by the professionals they work with and many have a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) at level 2 or 3. In the case of Health Care Support Workers who work in the community with District Nurses, they all have an NVQ at level 3.

Examples of a health care support need would be:

• Needing to have some blood taken for a diagnostic test
• Needing help to care for a catheter
• Needing help to put on compression hosiery (also called a TED stocking)

Examples of social care support needs would be:

• Needing help with washing and dressing
• Needing support with managing incontinence and help with laundry
• Needing support with managing finances.

How are people supported at the moment?

At the moment, in the community, health care support needs and social care support needs are usually met by different support workers. Health care support needs are usually met by Health Care Support Workers (who work with District Nurses), and who are employed by the North Wales NHS Trust. In Denbighshire social care support needs are usually met either by Home Care Support Workers employed by Denbighshire Social Services or by Domiciliary Support Workers employed by independent sector domiciliary care providers or voluntary sector organisations.

What will a Health and Social Care Support Worker do?

Most people do not see themselves as having either health or social care needs, or both. They simply want the right support to help them to live as independently and fully as possible in their own communities.

H&SC Support Workers will be trained to support people with meeting both health and social care support needs in a holistic person-centred way (link to glossary). The team believes that by working in this way service-users will feel less dependent on their support workers, and their well-being will be improved as a result.

The 4 main areas of an H&SC Support Worker’s work will be:

1. To observe and report any changes in the condition of the people they care for to the relevant health or social care professional (for example, a Generic Support Worker might alert the district nurse to early signs of a pressure area, and with the correct treatment from the District Nurse a pressure sore could be avoided). The H&SC Support Worker will have a good understanding of ‘who does what’ in the local area and will be able to point people in the right direction for getting more advice and information as needed. H&SC Support Workers will also be able to give basic advice on the prevention of problems, for example, how to avoid falls in the home.

2. H&SC Support Workers will spend time working with Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists as part of their training so that they are able to make sure that all the support they give to service-users makes them more confident in what they can do, and doesn’t make them more dependent on care.

3. H&SC Support Workers will be skilled in supporting service-users with social care needs including support with personal care.

4. H&SC Support Workers will receive training in some skills that at the moment would be carried out by Health Care Support Workers or Occupational Therapy Assistants (sometimes known as Technical Instructors, TIs). H&SC Support Workers will work very closely with District Nurses, Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists and will support these professionals in their work by reporting to them on the well-being of service-users on a very regular basis.