Education and Training Awards 2021

Most Compassionate Care Provider Training Solutions – Hertfordshire Hertfordshire Care Providers Association (HCPA) is not only a training provider, but a ‘one-stop-shop’ of support for care providers, helping them to raise their quality of care, supporting front-line care staff as well as managers and business owners. The association is focused towards creating a county where all adults who receive care are given a service of true quality, personalised to their needs. Managing more than £2 million on behalf of the government, the local authority, the NHS and other funding agencies for adult social care training courses and qualifications for their members, HCPA also offers training, assistance with recruitment, insurance, HR, and everything in between. “We offer support to our members with a host of low cost or fully funded services,” says Wesley Strahan-Hughes, HCPA’s Head of Operations. “We are here to help care providers any way we can, whether it is an answer to a quick question, on-going support, safeguarding advice, specialist toolkits or leadership coaching.” Through the HCPA accredited course offerings, it aims to give care providers the most up-to-date information and procedures for delivering the best level of care possible, promoting best practice through education and training at every opportunity and instilling a culture of professionalism through training. HCPA prides itself on being agile and able to react quickly to changes in guidance and policy, especially during the pandemic. The HCPA team is dedicated to raising the standard of care across the county. “Our staff originate from different backgrounds within care and can offer first-hand experience of working in the sector,” Wesley continues. “Their knowledge and skills coupled with their ability to teach means that our members receive the best possible training available from people who truly understand and appreciate their industry.” Covid-19 has had a huge impact on the care industry. HCPA has had to be agile and adaptive throughout the pandemic, enabling it to offer immediate courses or webinars as soon as guidance changed, which was often on a daily basis. “All our trainers had to move from face-to-face training to online training, which for some was a completely new concept and way of working. The move to online learning has been positive, enabling us to reach more individuals working in care and is certainly something we will continue to do even when restrictions are lifted alongside face-to- face training.” Regarding the future, HCPA has a continued learning ethos. As new policies, procedures and information is made readily available, the organisation ensures it is relayed to its teams with internal and external training courses. Ultimately, everyone shares the same goal and that is to raise the quality of care for service users. In the meantime, HCPA will continue working closely with its partners, as communication and partnership is key when looking for ways to improve the quality of care. “It is no secret that the social care sector is grossly underfunded, so offering fully-funded exceptional training to care providers and individuals means that we are going some way to ensure that service users receive the best quality of care available,” Wesley concludes. “We also have many innovative non-training projects that continue to go from strength to strength such as a recruitment service, care search system and quality assurance projects. We have also recently been funded by the European Structural and Investment Fund to carry out even more training.” Company: HCPA Web Address: www.hcpa.co.uk and www.mycareacademy.ac.uk May21099 Aiming to raise standards of care by offering fully funded training, network events and study days, Hertfordshire Care Providers Association has recently received an Education and Training Award for its efforts. Her t f ordsh i re Care Prov i der s Assoc i a t i on “Our staff originate from different backgrounds within care and can offer first-hand experience of working in the sector,” Wesley continues. “Their knowledge and skills coupled with their ability to teach means that our members receive the best possible training available from people who truly understand and appreciate their industry.”