Health staff training rates cause concern

Large gaps in health staff training have been criticised following a report of uptake being as low as 35 per cent in some cases.

Argyll and Bute Council’s deputy leader voiced concerns after a report revealed varying training completion rates among health staff in the area.

Councillor Gary Mulvaney highlighted the rates of data protection and customer care training at a meeting of the integrated joint board of the Argyll and Bute health and social care partnership on Wednesday May 25.

He also called for a return to ‘business as usual’ after Covid in relation to return to work interviews, which again showed varying completion rates in the report.

Councillor Mulvaney said: ‘The [return to work interviews] target is 100 per cent, but the variation of service levels is pretty marked.

‘If we take out the strategic planning and performance and look at the other four aspects [sectors], it is disappointing. The highest rate is just over 60 per cent and the lowest is 35 per cent.

‘Yes, we are coming out of Covid and we have had it for the past couple of years, but we need to get back to business as usual. On staff appraisals, looking at the completion rate it is relatively small.

‘Of course we have had Covid and staff have been employed with other things, but it is very important we have that engagement.

‘The other statistic jumping to my attention is around training and the variation in some mandatory training courses, such as data protection.

‘For anybody dealing with data this should always be 100 per cent as there are GDPR implications.

‘Customer care is another that, to me, is mandatory, but not a high percentage of staff have gone through that course.’ The IJB’s chair Sarah Compton-Bishop responded: ‘We know these areas of challenge and there were issues before the pandemic. We have seen a huge amount of work around the culture.

‘That clearly must continue, but I agree, I think it would be good if we could look at the things that we, as a board, need assurance on, and how we work on those trends.’