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We’re excited to announce that UTS is now approved to deliver Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in Learning Disabilities and Autism through the East of England Procurement Hub—one of the few NHS procurement frameworks through which organizations can purchase these essential services.

Training and Development Services – East of England Collaborative Procurement Hub

Why This Matters

The Training and Development Services Framework is the only procurement framework available to the NHS specifically for Oliver McGowan training. Being on this framework means that NHS bodies can commission training with confidence, knowing they are working with a provider that has undergone a rigorous quality assessment and due diligence process. This approval demonstrates UTS’s capability, reliability, and financial standing, offering immediate assurance to all NHS customers.

UTS is proud to be one of the few training providers on the Oliver McGowan approved training provider list and one of the select organizations accessible via NHS procurement frameworks.

What UTS Delivers

UTS offers a full range of training solutions to meet the needs of NHS bodies:

Tier 2 face-to-face training sessions
Tier 1 webinars
Train the Trainer programmes for facilitating trainers and experts

In the last 3 years Unique Training Solutions alongside Bury Council and the Bury Integrated Care Partnership have built initiatives that have proactively encouraged people to join and develop skills within Burys’ local Adult Social Care Workforce. It is no secret that the demand on this workforce is growing and there has been a number of challenges in recent years that have impacted nationally and locally, the ability the sector has to attract and retain great people.

UTS recognise the national and local challenges alongside the Bury employment marketplace and have championed providers that offer flexibility, offer salaries at and above the real living wage and progressively support training and development.

UTS designed, launched and account manages the “be the difference in Bury” initiative which is about strengthening local awareness about the incredible Adult Social Care workforce in Bury by increasing the attraction to local jobs, supporting people into jobs, increasing skills to progress within the sector and widening access to resources and tools that will strengthen workforce growth. We wanted to outline some of the collaborative work we are doing to shine the spotlight on these challenges and the support Bury Council is giving to their Social Care Providers.

Getting your first job or changing jobs in the Social Care sector can be a bit daunting. We understand why people get nervous in interviews, but the more prepared you are, the more confident you will be when answering and asking questions.

We have written this “Nail Your Interview” guide for several care organisations we work with, so thought we best share it on our blog.

We are sure this advice will help you.

Confirmation information

1 Has the service you are interviewing with sent over who you are meeting, when and where? Have they specifically asked you to read information and complete pre-interview forms? Make sure you read all the confirmation well in advance so you can plan your route, either by car or public transport and where you can park and the walk from the station or bus stop.

Turn up

It is important NOT to be late! This might sound silly but 1 in 5 applicants don’t show up and do not confirm non-attendance. This means important Management staff are taken away from providing care. If you are not able to attend, always call to explain and reschedule.

Why are you great?

Take time to think in advance why you are right for this position? What is it about you that makes you great to work in this sector, who have you supported and why did you make a difference to that person’s life? What do you enjoy and excel in? Skills for Care – talk about the Cs in Care –

Think about your values and the impact you want to make to vulnerable lives. You may get asked hypothetical or real-life example questions so be ready to think on your feet and give relevant examples about how you might deal with a situation.

What is essential to know?

There could be questions around Health and Safety, Medication, Qualifications, or any training you have completed. Having a good understanding of the type of care provision and CQC for the service you are meeting are all good things to research before an interview. This information should be readily available on a service website or by googling the CQC for the service. Spend time refreshing your knowledge on where you are with your training and development.

Body language and building rapport

Nobody likes awkward silence or being made to feel uncomfortable so it’s important to try and read the person you are meeting. Be relaxed but not too chilled! Give good eye contact and be mindful of who is doing the most talking and whether the interviewer is engaged with what you are saying. Always be polite and speak clearly and slowly (especially if English is not yours or the interviewers first spoken language). It’s good practice to build rapport so ask questions like.

• How are you?
• What does your role involve?
• Why do you love working in this sector and specifically within this service?

Conversation in interviews flow when you can find some common ground.

Asking questions

Questions will arise throughout the interview, but you might want to take a couple of your own with you. It is hard to guide you on what questions to ask, but good ones are always around:

• The team you will be working with
• The hours you will be needed to work
• Why the service is a good place to work
• The types of training and support you will be given to increase your confidence and ability
• The rate of pay you will get (don’t make this the first question)
• Flexibility offered / additional shifts offered.

Think about your career progression

An interview for a specific job can sometimes only be about the here and now and the expectation on the day you start. Having no progression is one of the main reasons people leave jobs so does need to be discussed at interview. You should be asking about the training, the next level of opportunity and the time it might take you to achieve this. Showing willing to do more and be better at your job is always a positive conversation to have.

Emma McNamara, UTS Workforce Strategy Lead reflects on how Time is still the “lead balloon” holding down the vital changes needed in our sectors.

I don’t know about anyone else, but this year is feeling like a whirlwind. Finally, we have had time to sit down grab a cuppa and have a few minutes to reflect. In the last 7 months, UTS have rebranded, built a new website, launched a Talent Strategy division, we have trained 10,618 learners from new starters to senior managers, enrolled 145 learners onto apprenticeship programmes from level 2 – 5 and delivered 6 new talent initiatives that have had our team interview over 350 new care workers, design 3 regional campaigns and launched a new social hiring page. Not forgetting our incredible partnership with @Skills for Care we have adjoined our specialists and presented at 3 events and to pop the cherry on the cake of chaos – implemented HubSpot to support our growing sales and marketing output.

Having this much insight into the ins and outs of the Health, Housing and Social Care sectors puts us in a Unique place to see the real challenges the sectors are facing with attracting and building robust high performing teams. There is certainly no lack of need from senior leadership teams to hire more people, it’s become business critical across the entire sector, matched with the need to train, reskill, and upskill new and existing employees. The issue remains that time still outweighs the risk; I mean hiring takes ages, taking people away from already understaffed services is frustrating and is time consuming for managers who are re- working rotas. Employees in general have super busy lives so putting time aside to learn new skills, go through a lengthy hiring process to find a new job or just being able to work additional hours feels overwhelming.

What we do see is that far too many people in Health, Housing and Social Care services are involved with the hiring and development, decision making processes, as a result it consistently feels “bitty”, knee jerk and more than a bit, out of control. Everything is being allowed to snowball because sitting back, dissecting the process, analysing, and then reworking, feels too hard and takes too long. When everyone is involved, there is no room for ultimate control. Someone must be the final game changer and even if the process of change will be hard work on top of more hard work, the opportunity cost of not changing this is too huge to think about.

So, what’s the answer? At UTS we believe in the art of pivot and pilot. Start small and go a bit leftfield. Dare I say the pandemic has made the whole world realise how important it is to have a bit of flex in the way we now do things.

Michelle Hillier, MD Unique Training Solutions discusses why she is continuously asked this and the what’s and whys of the best routes for training excellence moving forward.

In the 19 years of running Unique Training Solutions, I have had this conversation with almost every customer, and pretty much every time the answer is…… it is good to have both.

Of course, there are some huge benefits to the internal delivery model for example, where there is a high volume of training delivered combined with a consistent need for a range of subjects, it makes practical and financial sense to keep this training resource in house. The consistent demand for subjects such as new starter inductions and the more mandatory type of refresher subjects are good to run in house due to the requirement for regular updates, staff turnover and business alignment and growth.

Internal Trainers, in the main can deliver generalist subjects and those that are very specific to the culture and needs of the organisation. But what happens when you have the need for a specialist subject area? It is impossible to build an internal team with every single piece of knowledge and skills across all subjects, and who maintains the development and updating of delivery materials, and quality assures these to ensure the organisation that what is being delivered to the workforce is compliant and is applied correctly by the internal trainers?

Internal trainers do have the benefit of established relationships, they also fully understand the ins and outs and workings of the business. Like all areas of business performance, only having internal visibility and capability thwarts a company’s ability to see and learn “other ways”. With regards to training, having external visibility and input will override familiarity, allow for the stretch, and challenge delegates need. It builds an open and confidential relationship with learners so they can focus on personal development. If you have internal trainers, then it’s so important that they also can step out of the business and develop their own skills. Blending internal trainers with external specialists will enable an organisation to gain the wider perspective, gain specialist expertise when required and forge trusted relationships so delegates can gain a variety of training experiences that keeps development fresh and exciting.

At UTS we see the power in building these blended relationships. 70% of our client base have internal trainers, which is great as want our customer to have the best Training and Learning Development experiences. Our sectors require a lot of compliance and progressive development. Health, Housing and Social Care workforces are required to attend a lot of training sessions, so we want to make sure they learn the right skills but as importantly remain engaged with fresh content from rounded perspectives and they build trusted relationships with the people that are fundamentally helping them be more successful and confident in their jobs. We have become a part of training teams as opposed to working against them.