Interview: building career pathways for staff to learn and grow

Ben Miller, Registered Manager, at Castleford House Nursing Home spoke to us about how they’ve developed career pathways which allow staff to develop their skills and progress within their organisation.

Ben tells us that since he’s been the registered manager at Castleford House Nursing Home he’s introduced a range of new roles to help people develop their skills and further their career.

This process not only means that staff are continually learning new skills and innovative ways of working, but it also helps to support with staff retention.

Ben says:

One new role which was introduced was ‘Head of Lifestyles; which is part of the activities department overseeing the team of activity co-ordinators. Ben developed one of the activity co-ordinators into this role after they were already excelling in what they were doing and appeared ready to take the next step. This new role allows them to build on their existing activity coordinator role but also learn new skills and responsibilities, such as leadership and people management.

When a new role is developed within the team, it may come from Ben who has identified a gap within the team or it may come from a team member who has identified the need for this role and feels they’re the right person to take it on.

The opportunity to build new skills and develop their career in different ways within Castleford House has been positively received by Ben’s team.

The role of senior carer was a new position which Ben introduced when he first took over as manager, and he say it’s now integral to the team, and it offers a clear pathway for care workers to take the next step in their career and keep learning and growing.

The process involves trialling the role for around three months to see how it works, and if it’s proving beneficial then the new role is officially instated as part of the team. During this time the team member will take on a mixture of on-the-job and more formal training, as well as coaching from Ben, to support them in learning any new skills required for the role.

For Ben, it’s a proud achievement to be able to give his team members the opportunity to progress and develop personally and professionally, and he’s pleased that this means that his colleagues can grow and learn as part of the team rather than move elsewhere for their next step.

Find more information and inspiration on how you can support your staff to #KeepLearning with our spotlight.

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