Healthcare support workers: improving their training and development

In this webinar, Richard Griffin and Claire Fordham will talk about maximising the role and contribution of healthcare support workers. It will be of interest to anyone interested in the support worker workforce across health and social care.

NHS support workers, such as nursing Healthcare Assistants, Maternity Support Workers, and Therapy Assistants, often provide the majority of face-to-face care to patients, clients and their families. They make up 40% of the clinical workforce, yet despite their importance they have long faced barriers that mean they are not able to fully realise their potential.

Richard Griffin is Professor of Healthcare Management at King’s Business School, King’s College London. He has worked in NHS workforce policy for over twenty years. Richard has previously worked for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, the Department of Health and Social Care, and Health Education England. An author and co-author of over 200 reports, studies and articles, he was an advisor to the Cavendish Review, has undertaken extensive research into NHS clinical support roles and been involved, as an academic advisor, in national and regional workforce development programmes with both Health Education England and NHS England and Improvement. In 2015 he was awarded an MBE for services to health and social care. In 2022, he published 'Healthcare Support Workers: A Practical Guide for Training and Development', a resource for all those educating, managing or recruiting unregistered healthcare practitioners.

Claire Fordham is the Allied Health Professions (AHP) Workforce Transformation Lead for the North West London Integrated Care System. A physiotherapist by background, her work now includes developing a ‘Grow Your Own’ strategy for the AHP professions in North West London and with it, sustained investment in the support workforce.

On Twitter

Follow: @ClaireFordham5 & @rgriffinskill (the speakers) | #HSCWorkforce (this series) | @hscwru (the Policy Research Unit) | @Aspirantdiva (Jo Moriarty, convener)

To book for this event

All are welcome at this free online event! Please book via Eventbrite.

This series

This is an event in the Health and Social Care Workforce Research Forum at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce at King's College London. See all Unit Upcoming Events.

Header image: from the front cover of Richard Griffin's book, published in August 2022 by Routledge.