Managers’ Checklist

Reducing barriers the mental health support workforce may face when accessing CPD

Continuing professional development (CPD) activities take many forms. It could be attending training that may or may not result in a qualification but could also be learning events such as talks, reading relevant literature/opinion pieces/newsletters, coaching and mentoring or being given developmental opportunities in the form of new responsibilities.

Barriers to accessing CPD in the mental health support workforce

There are some key barriers the mental health support workforce may face when accessing CPD such as:

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As the mental health support workforce delivers the bulk of hands-on care some perceive it to be more difficult to release them for CPD activities.

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As the lowest banded staff they may have difficulty self-financing if the employer does not cover costs or funding is not available.

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The majority of mental health support workforce roles are non-registered and so acquiring CPD activity is not linked to keeping a registration (consequently registered staff can receive priority to access CPD).

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Some members of the mental health support workforce may need support with numeracy and literacy.

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There is no one resource that holds all mental health careers and the routes into them starting from NHS band 2 and up. Without this it's very difficult to assess options and map CPD activity into a career pathway.

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Challenges around time commitments and work responsibilities that those in a more senior post could have more autonomy over.

Further barriers to accessing CPD facing mental health support workers from minority groups

The mental health support workforce is more likely to be diverse/representative of local patient population and we know that those who come from a minority group will face additional barriers to accessing CPD such as:

Organisational failures to implement equality policies e.g. lack of transparency on how it is implemented, failure to evaluate or monitor how it is being applied.
Systemic discriminatory practices e.g., difficulty challenging career development and access to training because of a lack of/unaware/misunderstanding complaints processes; the nature of power relationships; not wanting to be labelled a ‘trouble-maker’ or damage relationships with colleagues.
Lack of support and career advancement for minority staff although where support is offered although positive can also be overwhelming to be out in the spotlight without preparation.
Formal learning lacking a wide cultural focus and being harder to access due to a lack of familiarity from minority groups.
For disabled staff not having equal access, or increased difficulty in access, as a result of illness
Favouritism e.g., ‘hand-picking’ staff for promotion with interviews ‘just a formality’, staff from dominant group more likely to be listened to and have more influence.

Reluctance to pursue education opportunities due to perceived intensity and structure of the course.
Low morale – this is based on lived and seen experiences such as:
- losing out on jobs to less qualified candidates that belong to the dominant group – seeing ‘return on investment’ for attending training as therefore low
- not being trusted to take on certain tasks that those that belong to the dominant group are
- not having the skills or knowledge to negotiate the system – unfamiliarity with professional discourse and buzzwords etc
- lack of social support and/or inadequate mentoring/coaching
- the lack of colleagues with shared backgrounds for mutual support that share learning and exposure to opportunities
- lack of role models in senior positions that share a similar background.

Source: The Diversity Project (2021) National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, Section 3 - Review and analysis of the literature

The following checklist acts as a starting place to ensure all is being done to minimise the barriers the mental health support workforce may face when accessing CPD. We recommend you create, or build on, current action plans.

checklist Speak to your HR team/check your staff intranet: To Do List

Review your local equality policy:

Understand what the responsibilities are of the manager within this policy.
Ask how other managers put this policy into practice and learn lessons from this.
Understand how the organisation evaluates and monitors how this policy is effectively applied and learn lessons from this; if it doesn’t champion for it to do so.
Understand national equality standards that are available such as NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard, Workforce Disability Equality Standard and Stonewall’s UK Workplace Equality Index

Review your local training and development policy:

Understand criteria such as study leave and ensure you apply this fairly amongst all your staff.
Understand what funding is available (both for training offered internally that may be charged to a department by a corporate HR team and also for training purchased from an external provider).

Review your local grievance policy which should cover informal as well as formal complaints:

Understand what the responsibilities are of the manager within this policy.
Ensure your staff are empowered to raise issues about their CPD and understands the organisation’s policy that allows them to do so – note the importance of the informal process stages before formal
Handle conversations with sensitivity and understand barriers to raising issues; there may be difficulty with power relationships, staff concerned about being seen as a ‘troublemaker’ or damage to working relationships with their colleagues and manager.
Understand the role and remit of the organisation’s Freedom to Speak Up Guardian(s).

Review themes from training data (such as demographics for applications, attended, dropped out etc) and act to continuously improve on themes that emerge; if you do not collect this data start to do so. Your organisation may also collect this locally so you can benchmark what you find

The Workforce Race Equality Standard report can allow you to benchmark views of your staff to national standard. See indicator 7 ‘Percentage of staff believing that their trust provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion’. The 2020 report shows that every year from 2015 to 2019 the percentage of BME staff believing there was equal opportunity was lower when compared to their white counterparts. If you are white then there may be something you are not seeing when it comes to assessing if equal access is in place.

Understand the career advancement programmes, including job vacancies, that are offered locally, regionally and nationally that are relevant to the mental health support workforce; including those with characteristics that are less represented in the workforce. Explore these themes in more detail in the Networks and Career planning sections of the toolkit.

Ensure staff know what is on offer and support them to engage.
Be sensitive that where support is offered, this can be seen as positive but it can also be overwhelming to be put in the spotlight without preparation.

Understand the mentoring and coaching programmes that are offered locally, regionally and nationally that are relevant to the mental health support workforce; including those with characteristics that are less represented in the workforce. Find out more in the Networks and Learning and development sections of this toolkit, in particular resources on coaching and mentoring.

Ensure staff know what is on offer and support them to engage.
Be aware of inappropriate or inadequate mentoring programmes that do not address the needs of minority staff for example regarding language and culture.
Be aware of the representation of mentors/coaches and that staff can access someone from the same minority group/background if they wish.

Understand the networks that are offered locally regionally and nationally that are relevant to the mental health support workforce; including those with characteristics that are less represented in the workforce

Ensure staff know what is on offer and support them to engage.
See HEE Support Worker Voice

checklist Review your own practice: To Do List

When deciding on a CPD activity do you consider if additional support may be required for the staff attending? e.g “I know my staff member is dyslexic and so will discuss what support they might need when discussing courses with them” (do not make assumptions that you know what someone may or may not need – everyone is different and you will need to discuss this sensitively and in partnership with individuals).

When agreeing on a CPD activity do you consider the location/time/date of the training and what barriers may exist for attendance? E.g “I offered to run a briefing session on the new policy that came out for my staff and it had a low turnout which I assumed was because they were not interested. However with flexible working it was actually that the majority of staff were unable to attend at that time”.

Have you ever formed an opinion of your staff’s motivation or interest in career progression based on a certain characteristic of theirs? e.g. “I know they are a working parent with not much time on their hands, I don’t think they’ll have capacity to attend this course so there is no point in discussing it with them”.

Have you decided that someone may not be suitable for a specific CPD activity because they have already had “too much time off”? This could be discriminating against colleagues with disabilities e.g. “I’ve offered everyone an opportunity to take on some extra tasks for their development but some individuals have had too much sick leave and so won’t be able to do it”.

Have you ever ‘handpicked’ staff for promotion with interviews ‘just a formality’? E.g. “I know I only have one staff member who is capable of moving to the next band so I won’t offer the role out to the others”.

Thinking about opportunities you have provided to staff over the last few years - such as chance to ‘act up’ with leadership skills, managerial or supervising, creativity and innovation – have you offered these fairly to all your staff? E.g. “In my one to one with a staff member we had a great idea of some CPD opportunities for them which they have taken forward. I have several staff in the same role that this would be of benefit to but I haven’t offered it to them because they didn’t bring it up to me”.

Thinking about the tasks within your team, how many are not delegated because some staff are not trusted to take them on? Can you challenge why that may be? If it is unfair what support systems can be put in place to enable staff to safely take up these opportunities – where they want to? E.g. “I know that the mental health support workforce spend the majority of time with the patients but we can’t give them opportunity to input into care plans because it’s too senior for them”.