Marie Curie response to Cavendish Review

Marie Curie welcomes the publication today of the Cavendish Review – the Independent Review into Healthcare Assistants and Support Workers in the NHS and social care setting – and will be reviewing its training and development programmes in line with the Review’s recommendation.

Healthcare assistants (HCAs) play a vital role in the NHS and in social care. At Marie Curie, they are a key part of our workforce, helping us to deliver high quality care to people with terminal illness and their families and carers.   We are committed to investing in our workforce and provide nationally-recognised vocational training to all our HCAs.

We are pleased to see that the Cavendish Review recognises the contribution of HCAs and that the recommendations seek to develop simple training standards and potential for career progression for healthcare assistants.

We also welcome the recommendation that employers be given support in order to recruit HCAs with the greatest aptitude for care, which has the potential to strengthen the HCA workforce further and improve the quality of care available to patients and families.

We believe that all healthcare assistants should have appropriate training and support to ensure that they perform their duties with the right skills mix of professionalism and compassion.  We have provided care and support to people who are terminally ill and their families for 65 years and we know the important role that healthcare assistants can offer in providing palliative care and comfort to those who are most in need.  This is why Marie Curie continues to invest in a number of development and training opportunities for HCAs through the Healthcare Assistant Development Programme, including support to complete vocational qualifications in palliative care, and other patient-centred training initiatives.

Providing good quality care to patients and their families is not only the responsibility of providers of services for the NHS, but also those who commission front-line services.  We also believe that local commissioners should take an active interest in the level of training and support that local health and social care providers offer their workforce.

Commenting on the publication of the report, Dee Sissons, Director of Nursing, at Marie Curie, said:

“Improving patient outcomes must be at the heart of what we do and this can only be achieved with the support of a highly-skilled and dedicated workforce.  All our nursing staff benefit from continuous professional development that enables them to care and support patients at the end of their lives, in their own homes and in one of our nine hospices, with confidence.

“We know from research that Marie Curie healthcare assistants have a high level of trust among the general public and we will strive to maintain this trust, through ensuring our staff continue to receive training and support, based on best-practice research, to meet the needs of patients and families at their most vulnerable times.”

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