The 2020/21 year has been another progressive year for the Training Hub with a sustained level of training activities and additional exciting developments. The service has increased its capacity and capability in the year delivering further innovative programmes of work.
The team is continuing to work with our local Integrated Care System, Tower Hamlets Together ensuring the Training Hub is playing a critical role in local workforce transformation work. The strategic developments of the East London Health and Care Partnership and its involvement has been interesting and the shift in empowering the Training Hubs across the region to support the workforce development programme at scale.
Amongst our key highlights have been addressing some of the workforces challenges currently present in Primary Care, the Hub this year launched some very exciting initiatives including a multi-professional coaching and mentorship faculty. The programme enables inclusive access to one-to-one support for all primary care staff working locally. The team also introduced their Virtual Reality-based ‘Through the Eyes of Programme’ which is targeted at empathy-building as a form of improving understanding of various health conditions.
The service continues to be the leading Training Hub in London recruiting and retaining newly qualified GPs. The year saw another 13 new GPs join and 22 retained from the previous year.
The group has been ably supported via access to peer support and a fellowship programme funded by NHS England and Improvement. In addition, another cohort of new Nurses commenced training through our ‘Open Doors’ recruitment and support incentive.
Outside of primary care, the service has supported local schools to be more mental health aware. Over 40 schools in Tower Hamlets have benefitted from the Training Hub's delivery of Mental Health First Aid training, ensuring London leading numbers for numbers of people trained. In addition, the Team's Mental Health and Suicide Prevention work has been recognised through the awarding of a three-year contract to lead on training for North East London by our regional Suicide Prevention network.
With the challenge of COVID-19 the team has seamlessly transitioned the delivery of our training exclusively to online. This has resulted in over 120 events taking place and over 3,000 places being filled in courses. The team has additionally provided regular wellbeing events for staff, which has been received very positively. They have also had the opportunity to support local medical schools, giving students access to one-to-one support from local experienced GPs in what has been a very turbulent year for students.
The Training Hub is often recognised as an enabler for education and training; however, it also has immense potential to support staff wellbeing and joy at work. It recognises that these are critical components to attracting the future workforce and retaining the current. Training Hub is keen to ensure there is always a strand of work to support this area to ensure that Tower Hamlets remains the best place to work in the country.
Also important is the team's role in addressing inequality and promoting inclusion. This is a core workforce issue. Discrimination of any sort should have zero-tolerance. We aim to ensure locally and regionally that we prioritise this area so that all people have equal opportunity and support to reach their full potential in the career they choose to pursue.
