Training our colleaguesHow we use our new learning management system to encourageour colleagues and keep our colleagues trained and compliant

Case study

SummaryThe Learning Enterprise is our training and development arm, delivering clinical and non-clinical training and development programmes for health and care professionals. We use our new learning management system MyLearning to deliver effective online courses, help services keep track of their training compliance and to quickly and efficiently bring large numbers of new colleagues up to speed when we acquire new services. Looking after the training for more than 6,000 colleagues – 2,000 of whom joined us newly this year – this essential technology has helped us to transform services and develop our colleagues.

The system is easy to use, with a user experience designed to mimic online shopping rather than traditional learning management systems

IntroductionAll Virgin companies prioritise their colleagues’ training and development, and Virgin Care is no different.

The Learning Enterprise uses a ‘blended’ approach of face-to-face and distance learning techniques to deliver everything from the ‘mandatory’ training on lifting and handling patients and equipment, to delivering vocational courses accredited by Universities to help our colleagues take on new challenges across the health and care service.

Keeping more than 5,000 colleagues compliant with the national rules on ‘statutory and mandatory’ training like fire safety and basic life support is a challenge for any organisation, but MyLearning – our online learning management system - not only supports more than 400 clinical services to stay compliant but also helps us quickly on-board thousands of new colleagues as our organisation grows.

Introduced after extensive engagement with colleagues from across the country, MyLearning shuns the complicated drop down menus and ‘booking’ processes of the past in favour of a simplified graphical experience designed to mimic online shopping websites and apps.

Since launching MyLearning across the business in May 2016, we’ve had nothing but praise for it. Around 9 out of 10 employees are regularly logging in, have completed 10,000 courses, 5,000 mandatory training exercises and 35,000 pieces of training have been ‘certified’ through the system.

And while our colleagues learn, our qualified and experience training team at The Learning Enterprise are busy developing new e-training courses and online exercises – something which previously required the support and expense of an external agency.

And as if all of that wasn’t enough, MyLearning also simplifies management with everyone, from the line manager with a single member of staff right up to the board, having simple and easy oversight of training and compliance.

The challengeMyLearning was invaluable when, in April 2017, Virgin Care faced the daunting process of mobilising three large new contracts. The project involved on-boarding more than 2,000 new colleagues overnight on 1 April while continuing to deliver services, uninterrupted, to people in Bath and North East Somerset, West Lancashire and Essex.

To complicate matters, while all of the staff joining us on 1 April were experienced and had mostly been delivering the services that were transferring for many years, different organisations interpret the rules differently and that meant that we were always expecting a big variation in compliance with our rules.

For example, while we expect colleagues to complete ‘booster’ training for safeguarding every year some organisations only ask colleagues to do this every two years. You can already see, with 2,000 colleagues and hundreds of courses, the potential for problems.

Over the course of the first 100 days, we:

• Uploaded and certified training records using information provided to us by our colleagues’ former employees, and invited colleagues to submit their own evidence

• Completed training needs assessments with teams across all three areas of the country, developing a plan of face-to-face courses and online training modules for the full year

• Increased compliance with guidelines on training by more than 100 per cent across the three services. For example, our West Lancashire team joined us with evidence that they were 19 per cent compliant but three months later we’d hit almost 50 per cent while in Essex we went from 36 per cent to 72 per cent and in Bath from 69 per cent to almost 80 per cent.

The solution

Since launching MyLearning, we’ve not only been able to support Virgin Care’s services but also use our expertise, investment and experience to deliver training to other organisations too.

The Learning Enterprise is rapidly developing a good reputation for its high quality, effective and well-planned training courses on health and care topics.

One of just 20 or so health and care training providers awarded the Quality Mark by Skills for Health for the face-to-face delivery of education and training to the health sector, The Learning Enterprise now delivers clinical, vocational and mandatory training across the South of England.

2000

10,000

100%

35,000

5,0009 out of 10

new colleagues joined us overnight

improvement in compliance within three months of taking on new services

training courses certified complete in first three months

mandatory training courses completed in three months

Developed and introduced to the organisation in 20 weeks

Courses available to everyone - not just Virgin Care’s team

A mix of face to face and online training

courses started and completed by colleagues

colleagues use MyLearning regularly

We hold the accreditation with the National Examination Board of Dental Nurses, and work in partnership with the University of Surrey and University of Derby to deliver accredited programmes.

Candace Miller, Director of the National Skills Academy for Health, said: “We are delighted that The Learning Enterprise has been awarded the Skills for Health Quality Mark.

The National Skills Academy for Health’s vision is to create a qualified and transferable workforce, with every individual recognised and valued for the skills they have, and encouraged and enabled to develop the skills they want and need.

The Learning Enterprise demonstrated that they met the exacting standards set out in the Skills for Health Quality Mark.

They support their learners very effectively and ensure that continued improvement of patient care and experience is encouraged through by providing great learning experiences on training and education programmes for the Health Sector.”

The differenceOur new partnership with The University of Derby is helping us deliver the next generation of health and care workers – with the first cohort due to complete the Professional Development (Health and Social Care) Foundation Degree in 2018.

Delivered as a higher apprenticeship, the programme is a work-based course designed for clinical support staff and care assistants aspiring to become assistant practitioners.

The higher apprenticeship was developed by the University of Derby in partnership with employers, and is the first step towards a registered profession for people with experience of working in health and social care roles. The University commended our training team during the accreditation process, saying they were impressed with the proactive response to national guidance, and the professionalism of the education solutions it had developed and run over the last few years.

The course is planned to be part of a new health and social care contract which Virgin Care is delivering in Bath and North East Somerset, supporting the development of an integrated service and building the next generation of health and care workers as well as offering those already working in the service the chance to develop their skills further.

Dr Paula Holt, Dean of the College of Health and Social Care at the University of Derby, said: “The University of Derby is proud to be working in partnership with Virgin Care to deliver the programme and we look forward to seeing clinical support staff and care assistants from across the sector taking up this innovative course and achieving their full potential.”We develop custom modules using the new MyLearning platform, helping us turn training needs into training quickly and efficiently.

Case study correct as at time of printing June 2018

About Virgin CareVirgin Care operates more than 400 frontline health and social care services across England with a difference. We run a wide range services including adult and children’s community services as well as GP practices, walk-in centres and urgent care centres, all alongside sexual health, physiotherapy, dermatology and MSK services. From 2017, we started providing, for the first time, adult social care services to help promote the wellbeing of people to help them live independently for as long as possible with wellbeing and volunteering services available.

Virgin Care Limited and Virgin Care Services Limited are both rated ‘good’ by the CQC following inspections in 2017. Inspectors said that the organisation “could demonstrate through documentary evidence that following acquisition of services, they had managed to bring about a sustained, significant improvement to patient care”.

Get in touch

Virgin Care LimitedLynton House7-12 Tavistock SquareLondon WC1H 9LT

t: 0330 332 7890e: info@virgincare.co.ukw: www.virgincare.co.uk

www.virgincare.co.uk