Success story: Hamberley Care Homes

Since 2018, Hamberley Care Homes has provided high quality, person-centred care in luxury surroundings.

With a team of over 900 homemakers, clinical teams and lifestyle & wellbeing coaches across 19 UK sites, the team provides 24/7 onsite residential care, nursing care and dementia care to their residents.

Hamberley Care Homes operate a growing number of luxury care homes, which benefit from the addition of neuro-care suites, dedicated to long-term care and therapeutic treatments for people living with a range of neurological conditions and symptoms.

As a health and social care business, Hamberley Care Homes prioritises providing all of their employees with the best learning experience to ensure that their carers can continue providing high standards of care quality, ensure the safety of those giving and receiving care, and remain compliant.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, and face-to-face training was no longer possible, Hamberley Care Homes sought a digital solution to provide all new and existing employees with access to the mandatory training required.

“Trying to implement a learning and development strategy during the middle of a global pandemic wasn’t easy. One of the biggest challenges that we experienced was that we couldn’t offer any face-to-face training, as training providers weren’t allowed to enter our care homes,” says Beth Coombs, Learning and Development Lead at Hamberley Care Homes.

Without any in-person, practical training, Hamberley Care Homes was challenged with finding an alternative to train their care staff; particularly for new starters during their 12-week induction programme as some training is compulsory before working with residents.

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Hamberley Care Homes sought a learning management system that could be implemented and accessed virtually throughout all of their care homes.

“I couldn’t be in all of our care homes at the same to encourage training and eLearning, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown, so we needed interactive and engaging learning content to provide the team with access to training courses at any time, whenever they need it, in order to achieve success,” explains Beth.

Hamberley Cares Homes required a learning management system with the scope to allow their own eLearning modules to be written and created so they could enhance their person-centred care. Home Managers also needed to be able to build training pathways that integrated with their existing learning strategy.

“The majority of eLearning providers couldn’t provide us with the content, flexibility or opportunities to cater for our needs. We had a diverse list of criteria that the solution needed to meet, from reporting capabilities for external auditors and inspectors, to mobile access so the team could access and complete training in their own time, in an environment of their choosing,” says Beth.

When a new care home opens, Hamberley Care Homes have 50-100 new starters joining the business. To avoid the expense and logistics involved in organising laptop/computer access during their inductions, Hamberley Care Homes required a solution that the care staff could access 24/7, in any location. A solution with an eLearning mobile app was therefore desirable.

Hamberley Care Homes had a set, tight deadline which needed to be met. Due to the migration, there was a pre-agreed 7-day period where nobody could access training or learning resources.

In the build-up to the migration process, Hamberley Care Homes regularly communicated updates to their care staff, set up meetings with the Home Managers to introduce the learning management system and provide them with the necessary support. An internal ‘teaser campaign’ was also executed to countdown the launch of the software.

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Hamberley Care Homes launched Access Learning in Winter 2021. This subsequently provided their 900+ care staff with access to the mobile app, so they could continue to complete compulsory eLearning and training throughout the global pandemic, when face-to-face interaction wasn’t possible.

“From a compliance perspective, we were worried about how to deliver the necessary training to our care teams during the pandemic. But as soon as we launched Access Learning, our Home Managers were really invested, motivated and engaged with the software,” explains Beth.

“It proved invaluable in getting the care teams signed up and actively using the mobile app for their training, as we managed to get over 900 employees signed up when we launched the app,” continues Beth.

Since launching, Home Managers don’t need to send emails to their teams to remind them to complete their training.

The intuitive and easy to use reporting functionality within Access Learning, also allows Home Managers to monitor compliance and create custom scoring. Home Managers can monitor compliance percentages and data of the business, as well as of the individuals. Homemakers, coaches and clinical teams can also use this data to clearly understand what is expected of them.

As life has slowly been returning to the norm, Hamberley Care Homes continue to see benefits as a result of Access Learning.

The expense and logistics involved in organising the access and distribution of laptops and computers during inductions has been eradicated, as new starters can access training on their mobile via the app.

“The app is so tech-savvy, and the courses are perfectly proportioned to the screen. The app is really easy to use, so you don’t need to be an IT-whizz to navigate your way around - we have had some really positive feedback from users about it,” says Beth.

Via the app, all care staff have access to a variety of engaging and informative learning resources that are readily available, at any time, all in one place; with industry-specific content examples including safeguarding vulnerable adults, and infection control best practice.

In the near future, Hamberley Care Homes are looking at building and integrating their own training into Access Learning, to provide care staff with access to a library of eLearning resources. This will help homemakers to prepare for a resident with a specific condition; so they can provide them with the highest standard of care.

Hamberley Care Homes will also be looking at creating their own competencies and assessments, as well as create their own eLearning modules and bespoke training programmes.

The Access Group's HCM division, Access People, offer an unrivalled suite of solutions for businesses, including HR and Payroll, Absence Management, Workforce Management, Compliance, Recruitment, Talent, Learning, Employee Benefits and Engagement, Health & Safety, all of which are underpinned by the powerful Access Workspace platform. 

The Access Group is one of the leading providers of business management software to small and mid-sized organisations in the UK, Ireland, and Asia Pacific. We help over 100,000 customers across commercial and not-for-profit sectors become more productive and efficient.