Training, engagement, and the importance of focusing on the client in the care industry

Alicia:
I'm Alicia. I am the director, recently made director of special services at Sweet Tree Home Care Services, and I've been working there for eight years now.

Shaked:
What brought you to the care industry?

Alicia:
I was previously working at the BBC. It didn't do it for me, quite do it for me. I wanted to do events. I then became an activities coordinator in a care home. I loved it. I worked with loads of different, range of different types of clients, young people, older people and there was a department there for brain injury and I just fell in love with the clients, understanding the brain and and how I could help people rehabilitate.

Shaked:
What do you think is so special and unique about the care sector?

Alicia:
With our support workers, there is such a passion, such a passion and a love to see their clients live their best lives. And so our support workers going in there and being able to help that client, I mean, that's unique in itself.
Care is not always seen as a positive thing, but actually that rehabilitation process, that love and passion, I think that's, it's inspirational.

Shaked:
Many care providers, they put their focus and emphasis on training.
How training can contribute to care retention, which we see is a big struggle right now?

Alicia:
We believe that we need to connect our support workers from very early on, so we like to have bespoke training. So when we are matching a client and a support worker together, we want that support worker to understand who they're going to be working with and what's the best way to work with them and to know little trigger points maybe. And then that formula is very much part of our assessment process as well when we go out and we see a client, we're asking those sorts of questions, you know, what type of person do you want to support you? So that training is very bespoke. We come together with the team. We provide specific training on that client.
How we know that that then works? Is that we get feedback. So we have open forums that we do. We get feedback from our support workers how they feel it's going. We get feedback from our clients as well. We have quarterly reviews. We are constantly reflecting on ourselves.

Shaked:
What would be their main complaints today in regards to communicating with the organization? The engagement with the organization, and all those little things that keep them in the organization or make them leave the organization

Alicia:
The complaints we've received is mainly about lone working. Actually, once you're working in that role, it's quite lonely. It's very lonely. Being able to know that you're doing a good job. No one else has seen it, I think we all like to know that we're doing a good job, although you can see the benefit through the client. I think it's nice to be told Well done. And I saw what you did that day and that's not always instant. So I think that there's a lot of isolation and I think our carers might feel quite lonely. We have tried to be able to connect support workers via having sessions where… so we are geographically placed and so we try to connect them and have different area type meetings. We ask them to meet up. We recently done a group facilitation, so we do supervisions and we do that four times a year. So we try to bring them together
so that they actually can share stories and see you know, how they can lean on each other and how we can help them s well.

Shaked:
A lot of Gen Z and people that are more tech savvy coming in to work right now as the workforce. So if I want to learn something today, I go to YouTube, I go to Coursera, I go to do many things with my mobile phone while I'm commuting. and still the experience in the organizations are a bit lagging behind, I think.
So how do you approach that in order to also deliver those amazing training courses that you have in a way that will suit the expectations of those tech savvy employees?

Alicia:
I do think that within the health and social care kind of industry, it's not maybe as quick with kind of technology, it does lag behind just a little bit. And so we are trying to keep up with that. Absolutely. But we're also trying to make sure that we understand where are where our audience, I mean, our clients and our support workers at their levels as well, of tech. So we've got a new system in place that is a lot more interactive. It's sending messages out, emails, we do e-learning as well. So people are able to do that training, access to that training in their own homes as well. Our newsletters as well. They've got kind of instant access to be able to click on something that brings up, you know, a number of different trainings and what's going on as well in Sweet Tree.

Shaked:
What do you think should be the number one focus of care providers this year?

Alicia:
It's always the client. That should always be the focus. So I think the care industry has so many different paths to take and having a Sweet Tree Farm, I think that's the way that we'll definitely be leading this year as well.

Shaked:
What would be your piece of advice to people who want to start the journey in the care sector?

Alicia:
I would say don't be afraid at all. If you know that you have a care, a passion to help people, then definitely make an application and come through to us or make that step. There’s so much information
out there...

Shaked:
What is the role in your opinion of technology and the digital transformation in the sector?

Alicia:
Technology has moved along so quickly and I think it's got a huge role in connecting clients, support workers, managers.
I think that there's definitely a place, a huge place, really, and it can bring people together and be able to just confirm, I think, that confirmation of knowing that that information's received as well, I think is a huge thing. It's not always known at the moment, a bit slow on that end and I think that that definitely is a place where It could sit.