In 2015, the Care Council for Wales was asked by the Welsh Government to put in place a two-year national learning and development plan to support the implementation of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014.
The evaluation report, carried out by ICF Consulting Services, analysed the plan’s second year, between 2016 and 2017.
The programme’s second year focused on rolling out core training to the workforce, and providing more specialised learning materials.
The evaluation concluded the programme was successful, robust and had probably achieved more in a shorter period of time than other approaches.
One of the main strengths identified was the collaborative nature of the programme – it succeeded because the Care Council, the Welsh Government, regional leads, trainers and learners all worked together.
The strong relationship between the Care Council, the Welsh Government, regional training leads and training providers allowed the Care Council to produce training materials within the plan’s tight timescales and to respond quickly to emerging training needs.
It also found the programme was cost effective, stating: “The delivery model used by the Care Council provided value for money… [It] reduced duplication of effort and reduced the level of expenditure in developing materials to train the workforce about the Act.”
Some 12,000 core modules were completed in 2016-17. As a result, the evaluation found that almost all staff, including frontline workers, said they understood the principles and ethos of the Act. They also said they felt more confident providing services in line with the Act.
Additionally, the evaluation report found the Information and Learning Hub, the online hub for all the information and learning materials about the Act, continued to be a valuable resource. The workforce said they felt its resources were high quality and useful, and having everything in one place made it easy for them to find the information they were looking for.
However, the evaluation report found the programme had yet to reach all parts of social care in Wales. It concluded there was more work to be done to make sure all those affected by the Act received training.
Read the executive summary of the 2016-2017 evaluation report.