Staff training and development procedure

Date: October 2018

Review date: October 2023

Version 8.0

Introduction

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust (herein the Trust) is committed to delivering high quality and safe standards of care, education and research.

To provide assurance that its services are effective and safe the organisation will ensure that it has a workforce that is competent and capable.

Purpose

The purpose of this procedure is to set out the Trust’s required standards for induction, appraisal, mandatory / statutory training and continuing professional development.

Scope

This procedure applies to all staff employed by the Trust including bank, agency and honorary contract holders.

The appraisal process does not apply to the following staff groupings as they have specific and alternative arrangements aligned to their professional practise requirements:

• Qualified teachers within the Gloucester House service
• Child and adolescent psychotherapy trainees registered on the Directorate of Education and Training, Health Education England, funded programme;
• Junior doctors; and
• Medical consultants and career grade doctors who are covered by the medical revalidation requirements.

Definitions

Mandatory training

Training programmes that the Trust requires staff to attend to ensure that they remain competent.

Statutory training

Course or programmes mandated through specific legislation that may apply to all staff or certain groups of staff.

Duties and responsibilities

Chief Executive

The chief executive is responsible for ensuring that this procedure is implemented, but in practice will delegate the operational management of the requirements to the director of human resources and corporate governance.

Director of HR and Corporate Governance

Has overall responsibility on behalf of the Trust board for the implementation of this procedure. Their role is also to advise the board and the executive management team of any risks of failing to deliver appropriate training to Trust staff.

HR & Staff Development Manager

Is responsible for the operational management and oversight of all aspects of this procedure. They will also ensure that the Trust is provided with timely and accurate information about mandatory and statutory training requirements and compliance.

Managers

Will ensure that all of their staff attend mandatory and statutory training programmes and that they remain compliant with the required standards.

Managers will also ensure that staff have a timely and well planned appraisal discussion each year and that planned development is identified at this point. It should be noted, that development should not be exclusively agreed during the appraisal cycle and that it can happen at any point and ideally should be discussed through ongoing supervision / one to one arrangements.

Staff

Are required to comply with all of the requirements set out in this procedure.

Procedures

The following sections detail the Trust’s procedures surround all aspects of education, learning and development. A specific matrix of training requirements is detailed in appendix A of this procedure.

Local induction

Following appointment it is important to ensure that all new starters are provided with an appropriate and comprehensive local induction which covers the rules, processes, procedures and gives an individual an overview of how their service operates.

Once a recruitment process has concluded the HR team will issue the new starter and their line manager with a local induction checklist. The individual’s line manager should ensure that they have had a meeting to induct the new member of staff and return the completed pro forma but no later than two weeks after the individual has started work.

Corporate induction

The Trust schedules three corporate inductions each year. Following a member of staff being appointed they will automatically be booked on to the next available induction session. The individual and manager will be informed of the booking and attendance is mandatory.

The programme is designed to provide the member of staff an overview of the organisation, share our vision and values and deliver both statutory and mandatory training that applies to all staff, irrespective of their role.

Mandatory and statutory training

Training that applies to all staff

There are a number of courses and programmes that all staff are required to attend and complete. The majority of these will be delivered at induction and then refreshed either through a mandatory training update day or using e-learning.

The Trust adopts the national standards set out in the Skills for Health core skills framework which recommends the appropriate time periods for refresher training.

Role specific training

Where a role is required to undertake specialised or specific training to maintain competence, the staff learning and development team will coordinate with subject matter experts, time slots and venues to deliver the training. The team will also be responsible for the booking individuals on to the courses, sending joining instructions and recording their attendance for reporting purposes.

The Trust has signed up to a collaborative approach with other Trust’s in north central London. As a result, where an individual conducts role specific training at another organisation in north central London, we will accept that as compliant with the Trust standards. Prior to a new starter commencing in post, the Trust will obtain an electronic record from the previous employer confirming what training has been undertaken.

Where possible, role specific training requirements will be delivered via e-learning, unless there is a national or legislative requirement that face to face or blended learning must be applied.

A detailed schedule of role specific training can be found in Appendix A.

Appraisal and personal development planning

There is a lot of evidence which demonstrates that organisations that have a robust performance appraisal process deliver high quality and safe care. The Trust has an established appraisal process which runs on annual cycle between February and June each year. The exact timings of each cycle will be determined by the executive management team.

The cycle is based on a cascade approach with directors appraised first, their direct line reports shortly afterwards and then all other staff thereafter. It is a mandatory requirement that all staff have both objectives and a personal development plan.

Where a member of staff starts within the organisation it is a mandatory requirement that they have an initial development conversation with their line manager three months after they commence to agree objectives and a personal development plan which will then be reviewed on the next appraisal cycle.

There are standard forms for the Trust’s appraisal process which can be found on the intranet.

Continuing professional development

The Trust’s human resources directorate is responsible for ensuring that it provides a range of education, learning and development that supports personal and professional development. Following each appraisal cycle the directorate undertakes a learning needs analysis using information from the personal development plans and then commissions a range of courses based on the organisational need. Prior to commissioning, the plan is agreed by the Executive Management Team or an appropriate group that it delegates this responsibility to.

In addition to the above, the Trust also allocates a portion of funding to support flexible CPD applications. If a member of staff wishes to undertake a course, or programme, that is not provided by the Trust and wishes to obtain sponsorship then they should complete a CPD request form and return this to their line manager. Following authorisation then application will be assess by a CPD panel who assess whether:

• The course can be fully funded by the Trust;
• Participation can be partially funded with a sum coming from the central CPD funds and the difference either being made by the service or individual application; or
• The request is rejected, this will happen only in the following circumstances:
• • There is insufficient budget remaining in the CPD funds;

• • The programme does not align to development within the role; or,

• • There is already an alternative provision in the Trust.

Where the Trust supports an individual to pursue a programme which in total costs greater than £1,500 the applicant will be made aware and required to sign a conditions of acceptance agreement, that should they leave the Trust within two years of starting the programme. The sum repayable will be based on a reducing scale of 1/24^th of the course cost for every month after the education has commenced.

Professional discipline CPD funding

In addition to the above CPD scheme, the Trust also provides each professional discipline with a budget to support education and learning. These funds are managed and allocated by the appropriate Head of Discipline who will at appropriate points report on activity that they have commissioned.

Non-compliance

Where a member of staff becomes non-compliant across any of the mandatory training requirements, they will be written to giving them one month’s notice to complete the outstanding training requirements and failure to do so will result in the following sanctions:

• That their pay step will be suspended and not re-applied until they have become compliant with the necessary training. The member of staff will also not be permitted to apply for developmental training;
• Failure to become compliant within one further month will result in the matter being handled through the formal stage of the Trust’s disciplinary procedure; and
• For data security training, the member of staff’s IT access will be suspended.

Study leave

Staff who undertake development training are entitled to receive up to a maximum of ten study leave days per year (pro-rated for part time staff). This time is intended to support attendance, revision, exams and any other appropriate activities to complete a course.

Study leave does not apply to attendance at mandatory or statutory training as this is a contractual requirement for the role.

Staff on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave

When a member of staff takes time off to support a new child they are allocated 10 keeping in touch days. The purpose of these are to maintain contact with their manager and to undertake relevant training where needed.

Before a member of staff commences a period of maternity, adoption or shared parental leave they should check their mandatory and statutory training status and ensure that they are booked on to any courses that need to be completed whilst they are off. Physical attendance or participation on e-learning programmes will be paid for in the normal way.

Training requirements

There are no specific training requirements for the application of this procedure. Where managers are unclear around any aspect then they should seek advice and guidance from their HR business partner.

Process for monitoring compliance with this procedure

The Trust will use a variety of methods to monitor compliance with the processes in this document, including the following methods:

Measurable Policy Objective	Monitoring/ Audit method	Frequency of monitoring	Responsibility for performing the monitoring	Monitoring reported to which groups/ committees, inc responsibility for reviewing action plans
The compliance requirements procedure will be reviewed at least four times to ensure that they remain to assured level.	HR & OD Assurance Report	Quarterly	Director of Human Resources	Corporate Governance and Risk Workstream.   Clinical, Quality, Safety and Risk Committee   Trust Board

In addition to the monitoring arrangements described above the Trust may undertake additional monitoring of this policy as a response to the identification of any gaps, or as a result of the identification of risks arising from the policy prompted by incident review, external reviews or other sources of information and advice.

This monitoring may include commissioned audits and reviews, detailed data analysis or another focussed study, for example. Results of this monitoring will be reported to the committee and/or individual responsible for the review of the process and/or the risks identified.

References

Skills for Health (2017). Core Skills Framework [online]. Skills for Health. London. Available from: http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/services/item/146-core-skills-training-framework .

Associated documents

• Disciplinary Procedure
• Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave Procedure