Briefing Paper The Dementia Training and Education Strategy for Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire County Council has been working collaboratively to lead the development and implementation of a county-wide dementia training and education strategy, to improve services for Gloucestershire citizens with dementia and their carers. Through a multi agency steering group, we have worked with our NHS partners in the local PCT (NHS Gloucestershire), Acute Trust and Mental Health Trust (2gether Foundation Trust), the Alzheimer’s Society and non-statutory care providers, to review, co-ordinate and develop training across Health and Social Care organisations, in order to achieve a co-ordinated dementia learning and development pathway for Health and Social Care staff. Importantly this work supports achievement of the National Dementia Strategy and local commissioning priorities. We commissioned and oversaw the development of a dementia e-learning programme which complements other dementia learning resources, including SCIE’s e-learning, and is an integral part of our blended learning approach to fulfil the need for a sustainable learning resource at awareness level. Over 800 staff have accessed this since its launch in 2008. Our two-day dementia training programme is open to all staff and carers/volunteers and includes input from the Alzheimer’s Society. Plans are in place to extend the two-day programme to include end of life care in dementia in line with the National Strategy. We are also working closely with 2gFT to support the development of a carers education programme. The Partnership for Older People Project (POPP) presented us with an excellent opportunity to develop dementia training and education for care homes. POPP training examined ways of working closely with care home owners/managers to explore how a sustainable and resourced ‘learning culture’ could be developed with the care homes. As well as provision of training courses, we have developed, integrated, and promoted the use of local learning resources, e-learning, bite sized training, learning exchange groups and the ‘train the trainer’ model as part of a blended learning approach. Our 3-file dementia learning resource pack has been introduced to all care homes and the pathway is structured to embed learning into everyday practice. This was achieved through the establishment of Dementia Link Workers (DLWs) who have been supported by specialist in-reach Education Nurses from 2gFT. The aim of the DLW role is to promote best practice for dementia care by passing on the skills and knowledge that the DLWS have gained, to their peer group within their own workplace. They use the on-site dementia learning resources to develop other staff members. DLW’s participate in best practice forums, led by the education nurses. To date, nearly 50% of our care homes have a trained and supported DLW and we aim to extend this to all care homes during 2009/10. Impact evaluation to date indicates higher quality person centred dementia care and fewer NHS referrals We are now developing the care homes training pathway for the wider H & SC workforce, within the overarching dementia training & education strategy for Gloucestershire; prioritising Domiciliary Care and Primary Care in 09/10. Joint funding has been secured from the PCT and LA. Angela Willis Workforce Commissioning & Partnerships Manager, Gloucestershire County Council May 2009