Publish date: 16 February 2022
An exciting further education programme opportunity for the health care support workforce in Mental Health care settings is in development. Working in partnership, Mersey Care (MCFT) & Cheshire and Wirral Partnership (CWP) NHS Trusts, alongside the University of Central Lancashire (Uclan) are in the process of creating a fully online 24-week educational pathway for Clinical Support Workers, due to start delivery in September 2022.
Who is a clinical support worker?
A ‘clinical support worker’ (CSW) is anyone who supports a direct health or care intervention, but is not formally qualified, or registered by a professional body (e.g. Nursing & Midwifery Council, or HCPC). Clinical support workers fulfil a variety of clinical support roles, with a variety of job titles. Some of these are universal roles such as healthcare assistant, whilst others have a more specialist focus such as occupational therapy assistant. They are client facing staff (i.e. not administrative or clerical staff) who do not currently have an associated professional qualification.
What development opportunity will be available?
This is an opportunity for existing support workers (Bands 2 or 3) that perhaps have not studied in a long time and hold no previous accredited qualifications. Not only will this programme be University accredited, but its completion will also help work towards meeting the criteria for potential entry to the Trainee Nursing Associate programme, for those who wish to progress further.
Have your say
As this programme is currently in development, we need colleagues from across our mental health clinical services to input into this development, including qualified mental health registrants who would provide on the job support and mentoring.
To contribute to this, we would value your input and wish to seek your views on the content and delivery of this programme but also seek potential expressions of interest, there are three online employer stakeholder events being held in March 2022:
• 7 March 2pm – 3:30pm
• 10 March 9.30am –11am
• 22 March 9.30am –11am
These stakeholder events outline the proposed specifics of the course and the delivery models that are in development. Along with Entry Requirements, potential outcomes, and funding related information.
For further information or for a link for the Stakeholder events please contact Benjamin