The Regenda Group: What Motivates Them to Upskill Their Care Staff?
We talked with Andy Carberry (Pictured Right), Director of Care and Support at The Regenda Group. Andy leads the team at Petrus Community, a homeless charity based in Greater Manchester and Centre 56 which is a nursey supporting families who have experienced domestic abuse in Liverpool. Andy also oversees Independent Living Services right across the North-West for social Housing provider Regenda Homes.
So, how does The Regenda Group and its care services continue to provide a high-quality service to all its users?
The Regenda Group recently embarked on an ambitious growth plan and aligned with that was a need to have the right partner on board for the upskilling of their staff. Bringing in new skills, and upskilling existing staff was considered vital, particularly regarding emerging services, like the recently launched care leaver service in Wirral.
According to Andy, the care and support sector is ever-changing and there is new guidance and research regularly published. Adjusting, adapting, and reacting is imperative and it’s important to bring on board new skills, new information and new people who are receptive to change to ensure a high-quality service for users.
Andy says, “We now have a real variety of backgrounds in our team, from someone who is retraining and joining us from another sector or an existing staff member who is upskilling, through to someone who has just graduated and has gone down the apprenticeship route and brings that dynamism and energy to the team as well.”
For Andy, one of the most important aspects of upskilling existing staff is to make them the best version of themselves and to ensure they’re getting job satisfaction from their work, which also has a positive impact on the culture of the organisation itself. That positive culture, in Andy’s opinion, contributes to quality care and support provision for service users.
“I’ve worked in the care and support sector for over 20 years and it’s a vocation of sorts, you want to contribute something back to the sector and that involves growing the people that you work with. It’s also very much about succession planning, we can develop our own people to fit well within our culture.
“One of my core values is that if you have people who are engaged and satisfied with their work, then this will create happy and satisfied people who use our services,” said Andy.
It’s no secret that the current Coronavirus pandemic has thrown up some challenges for care organisations throughout the UK, and they have needed to adapt quickly. According to Andy, staff who were or are currently upskilling, have similarly adapted to this ‘new normal’, with help and support from The Learning Foundry:
“It has been a really positive experience for me doing my training through The Learning Foundry, I have been surprised at how easy the transition to distance learning has been and because of the technology available to learners and the online tutorials, I don’t feel I have lost out in any way, the tutors have been really supportive and have been there when I needed help,” said Kevin Berry, Level 2 Health and Social Care apprentice at The Learning Foundry and Support Worker at The Regenda Group.
In the past year, our achievement rate at The Learning Foundry for Health and Social Care courses (Level 2 and 3) has been 100%, highlighting the commitment of our learners, but also the hard work, knowledge, and dedication of our tutors.
For more information about how we can help you to make the most of your apprenticeship levy and upskilling your staff contact us on.
0300 123 8088 or info@thelearningfoundry.co.uk
Or visit: https://www.thelearningfoundry.co.uk/learn-with-us