TRAINING AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT POLICY
THE BOARD’S OVERALL AIM
Training and staff development is an important way in which the Board can achieve its organisational aims and objectives. The principal purpose of all training and staff development is to make the Board more effective at all levels by enabling its staff to work in the best ways possible
BASIC PRINCIPLES
People are the most important resource to the Board. Through them, it achieves its aims and objectives, including a high quality of service to its clients.
Improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of staff will have consequential benefits for the functioning of the Board as a whole.
The level and quality of provision of training and staff development is a reflection of the value placed on staff, and also affects staff morale.
Training
and staff development, therefore, will have high priority. The Board
will ensure adequate financial and other provision to ensure all
members of staff, collectively and individually, receive high quality
training and development to assist them to achieve their full potential.
FRAMEWORK
Training and staff development are broad concepts. They cover training events (whether delivered by the Board or external agency, at whole staff, team and individual levels); bespoke professional and career development programmes; staff supervision; performance review; coaching and mentoring - all requiring appropriate effectiveness-monitoring.
Underpinning training and staff development are the related processes of:
Staff supervision
Mutually
planned and recorded and provided on a regular basis by the line
manager (and, for some purposes, peers), for support, monitoring and
planning. In the case of a new member of staff, early supervision
sessions provide an essential opportunity for mutual auditing of the
postholder’s induction, skills and training and development needs.
Staff development review
A specific periodic event designed to evaluate performance and plan actions (including specific individual training plans) to develop knowledge and skills; deriving from, and based upon, regular supervision.
Monitoring
Regular systems for evaluating the effectiveness of training, deriving in large part from staff supervision and staff development review, but also including managerial analysis of training feedback forms.
TRAINING OBJECTIVES
The Management Team, through appropriate staff consultation and development review processes, will identify, plan and provide staff training and development programmes as part of the Board’s strategy for the achievement of its organisational aims and objectives. Specific aims and objectives will be identified for each programme.
These programmes will cover:
- Induction (organisational, team and role)
- Knowledge and skills enhancement
- Professional and career development
- Induction
1. Organisational Induction
Newly appointed post-holders will be given an induction programme which will give them information about the organisation as a whole. It will include an overview of the organisation; its functions, aims and objectives; structures; and health and safety arrangements. The programme will include introductions to other staff; a pack of all documentation relevant to their part in and contribution to the work of the Board, and will cover responsibilities and requirements, rights and privileges.
Team/Section Induction
Newly appointed post-holders will be given an induction programme which will enable them to have an adequate knowledge of the work of their team or section: its aims and objectives; its place in the structure and particular contribution to the work of the Board; its functions, systems and organisational requirements.
Role Induction
This will be based on initial supervision processes, within which the post-holder’s needs have been audited. Newly appointed post-holders will be given an induction programme which will enable them to understand and carry out their own responsibilities within the team or section, and know how these contribute to the functions of the team and the Board. This programme will include introductions to colleagues within and without the Board with whom they will have significant dealings.
2. Knowledge and Skills Enhancement
Through periodically determined organisational training objectives and through the Development Review system, all post-holders will be required and enabled to maintain and develop their existing their levels of skills and knowledge, and acquire new ones. Training and staff development plans will be established at organisational, team and individual levels.
3. Professional and Career Development
Through supervision and the Development Review system, staff will be encouraged to attend to their reasonable individual professional and career development needs, where these are compatible with Board’s policies and functions and are within budgetary resources. Such provision is of particular importance where the post -holder is subject to a limited term contract of employment and will in due course have to pursue a future career outside the Board.
RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Senior Management
The senior management team is responsible for :
i) establishing training and staff development aims, objectives and implementation strategies;
ii) resourcing training and development;
iii) monitoring the effectiveness of training and staff development strategies.
2. Head of Personnel
The Head of Personnel is responsible for:
i) taking the senior management team lead in developing and implementing training aims, objectivies and strategies, as set out in this policy;
ii) monitoring the effectiveness of the training policy and its implementation;
iii) managing the training budget.
3. Team/Section Manager
The team manager will be responsible, through supervision and the Development Review process and in response to the Board’s overall aims and objectives and specific training and staff development strategies, for the identification of team and team members’ training and development needs. Where appropriate the manager will provide training and monitor its effectiveness. In doing this, the team manager will be encouraged to use the resources of other members of the team, where practicable and resources allow, delegating mentoring roles with specified responsibilities.
4. Post-holder
Individual post-holders are expected to have a commitment to the enhancement of their performance and to support the Board in achieving its aims and objectives. Through supervision and the Development Review process, they have a responsibility for contributing to the identification of their training and development needs and for making the most of their training opportunities.
PROVISION OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Training and staff development will be identified primarily through specific strategies for the achievement of corporate objectives. To a significant extent, these will draw on, and be complementary to, the needs identified through supervision and development review processes. The process of identification is stratified, with corporate training aims and objectives ‘cascading’ through the organisation from collective to team and individual levels. Responsibility for the provision of identified collective, team and individual training and development requirements is identified above [Section V]. The annual training budget should be adequate to meet agreed provisions, with priority being given to proactively determined and approved plans. Provision will always be subject to relevance to training aims and objectives: corporate, team and individual post-holder. Individual training requirements identified in training plans which require Personnel Department action, including all those involving financial cost, will be recorded on training applications forms. In each case, the ‘trainee’ and his/her line manager will be responsible for agreeing and recording an implementation plan (which, in many cases will constitute one or more simple strategies) and, after training, for recording an assessment of the quality and value of the training concerned.
TRAINING RECORDS
Individual training records, as with Development Review files, will be kept securely and centrally in the Personnel Department. These records are confidential, access being on a need and right to know basis. Individual members of staff will have right of access to their own files.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
In accordance
with the Board’s Equal Opportunities Policy, all members of staff
will be entitled to training and staff development opportunities
appropriate to their needs. No member of staff will be discriminated
against on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, marital status,
creed, colour, race, ethnic origin, religious or political beliefs,
age, disability, or part-time employment status.