On Thursday 21st September FNTC held their very own coffee morning in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

This is the third successive year that FNTC have held a coffee morning with everyone happy to do their bit to support this brilliant cause.

On the day everyone got involved by bringing in a variety of delicious cakes, both homemade and shop bought.

Staff attended their center meeting and then during the break the cakes were sold with members of staff making donations in return for their cakes.

This year we raised £61.80 for Macmillan and look forward to trying to beat this total with our next event.

If you would like to organise your own coffee morning in aid of Macmillan please follow the link below:

https://coffee.macmillan.org.uk/

 FNTC have invested in an online e-portfolio system called smart assessor.

With our main focus being more accessible for our learners, our employers and our parents. FNTC staff will use smart assessor to complete all necessary documents associated with enrolling a learner onto an apprenticeship, traineeship or work based learning.

Smart assessor can be accessed via computer systems as well as an app on a mobile device.

Learners will have access to a learner dashboard where they will see exactly what units they have, a progress widget, resources available to use for support as well as assessment feedback, next appointment times and also the ability to upload work straight to their portfolio.

Employers will also have access to see all of their learners enrolled on courses, they can see learners progress, have the ability to also upload work and also communicate to the learner and assessor via smart assessor. Teaching staff will also evidence attendance to classroom based activities. This allows employers to access this information at any time- allowing flexibility.

Parents and guardians of learners aged 16-18 will also have access to their child’s dashboard and see their ongoing progress.

FNTC have already rolled this system out to learners as of mid August and to date- employers have also embraced this and provided positive feedback.

On Friday 16th June 2017, LawnBrook Care Home will be holding an open day! The team at FNTC Training would like to invite you all to come along and visit. We are very proud to be helping LawnBrook in developing and expanding their workforce, so you may see some of us in the home on Friday!

In honour of Carers Week 2017, LawnBrook have opened their doors to invite people to come and spend time in the home, and to meet the residents and staff – this is an excellent chance to discover what LawnBrook is all about.

For more information about LawnBrook’s open day, please see the flyer on the left.

On Monday 10th April, a new resource was made available to social care employers – one designed to assist them in planning and developing their workforce! This resource is an online tool that has been developed by Skills for Care in partnership with the Oxfordshire County Council. The tool will help employers to better understand the complexities of workforce development and planning.

With an estimated 90,000 vacancies in the adult social care sector on any given day, and a staff turnover rate of 27.3% for directly employed staff working in the adult social care sector (2016), more and more employers are seeking guidance and resources around planning and developing their workforce for the future.

 

What is the online tool?

The online tool uses a simple ‘question and answer’ format to assist employers in exploring the factors that can affect workforce capacity and capability. The tool will then use these answers to send a personalised email report to the employer, which includes recommendations for actions, along with links to further resources and guidance. This resource is also completely free for social care employers to use!

 

Jim Thomas, Programme Head – Workforce Innovation at Skills for Care has said that “we developed and tested this tool with, and for, social care employers to explore a wide range of workforce issues and challenges.” He is aware that these challenges may vary between employers, but generally include “workforce supply and demand, succession planning and establishing learning and development priorities for their organisation.”

Rachel Lawrence, Commercial Manager at Oxfordshire County Council has further commented that “workforce planning is about making sure that your organisation has the right number of people, with the right values and skills, in the right place, at the right time, for the right cost. That’s a tall order, especially as the social care sector is currently facing huge workforce challenges. This tool will help employers, particularly small employers, to take a step back and explore all of these factors in some detail. By understanding what’s really happening on issues such as staff retention and sickness absence, employers will be better placed to take the actions needed today to deliver the workforce that they – and we – need for the future.”

 

To access the new online tool, please click here (or visit www.skillsforcare.org.uk/WPDT).