Case study: elearning, social care

London Borough of Merton adopts elearning to improve training of social care staff

The challenges

Social care for children and young adults in the UK sees a relatively rapid turnover of staff, making training for new employees a costly ongoing necessity. It is estimated that the social care sector loses £78 million per year due to this high employee turnover.

Furthermore, nationwide social care staff shortages mean busier social care workers with less time for training, even though post-qualification training is an essential part of their working lives as procedures and protocols are always being changed and updated.

Recognising that its existing classroom-based training was reaching capacity, the London Borough of Merton saw elearning as an opportunity to provide a more accessible, extensive and effective additional training programme.

When a full-time trainer left the team, Merton decided to allocate part of its ICS (Integrated Children’s System) training grant to elearning.

A major challenge facing the Borough was how to overcome poor take-up of training that, although important, was not compulsory. Elearning presented a possible solution, providing the opportunity for busy staff to undertake training at their own convenience and pace, from any location that has an internet connection.

Choosing the right training

Merton purchased an elearning solution from Me Learning, the sole supplier to offer elearning specifically for Merton’s social care case management system, CareFirst supplied by OLM.

Merton invested in two learning packages which came with an integral learning portal to track the training provided.

Me CareFirst, designed for both adult and children’s services, is a comprehensive suite of elearning modules developed in partnership with OLM. The training takes around eight and a half hours to complete and is the equivalent of five days of classroom training. The modules have been designed to help local authorities roll out CareFirst to its staff and to provide a perpetual support and training platform.

Me ICS is a separate suite of online tutorials providing process guidance on the Integrated Children's System. The Me ICS elearning suite allows the local authority to incorporate a blended-learning approach to ICS training and provides a comprehensive online resource which is up to date with the latest processes and protocols. Modules cover: child in need, child protection, looked after child and private fostering. The Me ICS training takes around four and a half hours to complete and is the equivalent of three days of classroom training.

The benefits

Me Learning worked closely with Merton to provide elearning modules tailored to Merton’s specific requirements and to complement its existing classroom training. This new style of blended learning, with online training for CareFirst and ICS alongside classroom training, has proved successful, resulting in benefits for managers, trainers and participants.

The elearning system allows new starters and agency workers to get up to speed and start using it immediately, without having to wait for the next classroom course. As all new staff now have to complete the training before receiving their CareFirst log-in details, uptake of the training is ensured. Data input quality into CareFirst has also improved as all staff are trained in a consistent manner, which ensures all staff are using the system correctly.

Furthermore, Merton has saved time by reducing the number of classroom training days. Merton has found that the provision of online help and training has reduced demand on trainers and the support desk. This means that trainers can be released to focus on those staff who require additional support, as well as ensuring that the CareFirst training keeps in line with changes in government legislation.

Staff are required to complete Me Learning training prior to attending classroom training. This reduces instructor time in the classroom and staff time away from the workplace. It also means that trainers can assume a basic knowledge and understanding from all participants and can build on this, focussing on more bespoke topics in the classroom. Additionally, users of the online training can in their own time delve deeper into specific subjects and read up on system updates that may not justify a full classroom course.

The online courses are easy for managers to monitor. They can quickly access key information, such as who has taken a course, when they took a course, how long a course took and whether they passed or failed.

Chloe Mc Sweeney, Information Strategy Manager for Merton Council said: "All new starters are now required to take the online courses before they are given their CareFirst login details. Instead of having to wait for the next classroom course, a new starter can hit the ground running.”

One of the key benefits of the online training system is that extra modules can be added as time goes on. Merton has chosen to provide small overview modules that are compulsory and then offer larger, more in-depth versions of the modules that are optional for those workers that consider the subject a priority. This gives users the opportunity to expand their knowledge and delve deeper into core areas of particular interest.

Initial results

The London Borough of Merton started using the elearning courses in early 2008. In January 2009 it became obligatory for staff to complete the Me CareFirst module before receiving their log-in to the system. This led to a significant increase in the number of online training hours carried out by Merton’s social care staff — a total of 120 hours during June 2009.

Chloe said: “Investing in online training has been a learning curve for me and I am delighted to be seeing such positive results this year. Me Learning’s courses are easy to use, engaging and a great way for our staff to refresh their knowledge at their own pace on an ongoing basis. A huge benefit to our staff is that they can access the training at any time and from anywhere there is an internet connection.”

As the online training courses can be tweaked, Merton has embedded links that run the courses from within Care First as help items, and this is proving popular with the users as they can get help as and when they need it.

She continued: “Whenever we are thinking about adding to our IT suite for children’s social care, we build in an element for training covered by a Me Learning module. So far, our workers have taken over 1800 modules and this number is increasing every day and will continue to do so as we gain new members to our team.”

Feedback from Merton’s internal training team has been extremely positive regarding the addition of online training to the existing classroom-based sessions, with one Care First trainer, Clive Yelf, stating: "Me Learning has helped improve the basic knowledge of CareFirst and I've noticed that when people turn up for classroom training they are much more familiar with the nuts and bolts of CareFirst. All in all it is a valuable part of our holistic training solution for children's services!"

Moving forward, Merton will continue to encourage its new and existing social care staff to get in the habit of using the online training modules and to increasingly use the online modules as a source of knowledge and guidance.

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