NANCARROW, S. A., SHUTTLEWORTH, P., TONGUE, A. and BROWN, L. (2005). Support workers in intermediate care. Health and social care in the community, 13 (4), 338-344.
Abstract
Despite the proliferation of support worker roles in the UK, little is known
about their actual numbers, employment conditions or levels of training.
Intermediate care services appear to be an important employer of support
workers, but the diversity of intermediate care services makes the task
of understanding support worker roles even more complex. This paper
presents data from 33 services which were involved in an NHS Modernisation
Agency’s Changing Workforce Programme project, the Accelerated
Development Programme for Support Workers in Intermediate Care in
England. Within this project, the main employers of support workers were
primary care trusts and/or social services. Participating intermediate care
teams were involved in admission avoidance, assisted discharge and
re-ablement, or combinations of these services, and the majority of care
was provided in the patient’s own home. The 33 services employed 794
support workers and 368 professionally qualified staff. The mean ratio of
professionally qualified staff to support workers was 0.95 (range = 0–4.9,
SD = 1.05). Support worker roles included multidisciplinary working,
meeting rehabilitation needs, providing personal care and enablement.
Team leaders included nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, professional
managers, home carers and support workers. The most commonly reported
sources of support worker training were National Vocational Qualifications
and in-house training. In 80% of the services, at least half of the support
workers had a qualification. Three models of supervision emerged across
the services: the allocation of a mentor; team supervision; and formal
and informal line management. These findings illustrate the diversity of
employment of support workers in intermediate care. The variations in
training, supervision and skill mix have implications for clinical governance
and support worker regulation. The employment of support worker staff
jointly across health and social care raises cross-boundary issues around
employment contracts and pay.
More Information
Metrics
Altmetric Badge
Dimensions Badge
Share
Actions (login required)
![]() |
View Item |