Oxfordshire Skills for Health in the Primary Care Trusts

Oxfordshire Skills for Health is working with the five Oxfordshire Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to make learning available to staff who up till now have had little access to training and development.

How does Oxfordshire Skills for Health work?

We start by talking to staff and managers about their workplace issues and how they feel learning can help them. We know that some of the people we talk to may lack confidence in their ability to learn and we make allowance for this.

We offer learning in the area of communications, maths and IT. Any support/development that staff or managers identify as desirable is tailored to the needs of both the individual and the organisation.

Arrangements are always flexible because NHS organisations are busy places where staff are often stretched to the limit and patients must come first.

Oxfordshire Skills for Health learning is delivered:

• On-site
• Free and (wherever possible) in paid work time
• Confidential (a learning environment where people feel safe)
• At a pace the participant is happy with, in a friendly, informal way

How does this project relate to NHS modernisation agenda?

The National Health Service is making  fundamental changes in its working practices to liberate the talent and skills of all the workforce to improve patient care. See the NHS Primary Care for more information on government plans.

By assisting staff in continuous personal and professional development, Oxfordshire Skills for Health helps PCTs achieve NHS modernisation objectives while benefiting individual staff.

• “Lifelong learning for the whole workforce will support staff to extend their skills and knowledge and take on new roles and responsibilities”. (NHS Plan)

Oxfordshire Skills for Health helps PCTs make the most of their human resources.