Hft awarded Centre of Excellence status for exemplary training 

The national learning disabilities charity, Hft, has been awarded Centre of Excellence status in recognition of its exemplary training provision by Skills for Care.

Hft is only the third charity to receive the accolade and one of just 24 organisations to have the bespoke quality mark which is awarded to the providers with the best learning and development programmes within the adult social care sector.

Since 2016 Hft has been accredited as an endorsed provider in recognition of the significant difference training makes, both to the learner and the people being supported. This has now been superseded by the Centre of Excellence status awarded for going above and beyond with training provision.  This required providing robust evidence of the charity’s innovative and continually evolving approach to the delivery of learning opportunities to ensure the needs of learners are met.

The examples cited by Hft included:

• Working alongside people supported by Hft to develop resources and deliver training for staff based on best practice from their lived experience.  This has ranged from people supported by Hft delivering induction training and creating eLearning resources, to video resources on topics including fire safety.

• The creation of the charity’s Operations Development Pathway to provide learning opportunities for staff wishing to develop and further their careers. The programme aims to assist the retention of talented staff by creating chances to evidence the skills needed for senior positions when openings arise.
• Working in partnership with a variety of other organisations to deliver training specialised to the needs of the workforce, ranging from palliative care to specific medical issues. 
• The creation of a dyslexia toolkit, combining learnings from focus groups with dyslexic staff across Hft and research, to both provide support and advice for managers, and improve people’s working experience.
• The delivery of Positive Behavioural Support training by Hft’s Specialist Skills team to provide person-centred services to staff across the organisation and in partnership with other organisations, to reduce episodes of challenging behaviour and increase individuals’ community integration.

Sue Hill is Hft’s Head of Organisational Development. She said she is delighted that Hft’s commitment to developing its workforce has been endorsed at the highest level by Skills for Care. 

“I am so proud Hft has been recognised as a Centre of Excellence,” she said. “Our team constantly strives to offer exemplary learning and development opportunities to everyone in the organisation; they work tirelessly to offer excellent customer service and to help deliver learning that ultimately improves the lives of the people we support. I have always believed that what we do is excellent but having the endorsement from Skills for Care is such an honour and a testament to the dedication and commitment of the team in creating an engaging and innovative learning experience. I am thrilled we have achieved this.”

Lori Barber-Field, Skills for Care Project Manager said: “It has been great endorsing Hft as a Centre of Excellence. They’ve demonstrated dedicated commitment to the core requirements, such as effective leadership and management, robust quality assurance, ensuring staff development is based on equality of opportunity, and finally that working with learners is a central feature of all learning and development. We look forward to working with Hft in the future.”