Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust trains 5,000 employees with Totara Learn

The Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust was formed in October 2019. This followed the merger of the 2gether NHS Foundation Trust and Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust, to provide physical and mental health, and learning disability services.

The Challenge

Like all other NHS organizations in 2020, the Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust was facing the unprecedented effects of the global pandemic—which spread just after the NHS Trust merge. This left the L&D team with 3 urgent tasks on their hands:

1. Move in-person training into a more accessible format via online training (a radical change in learning culture)

2. Ensure that all NHS staff and volunteers had the correct training throughout the pandemic

3. Merge two legacy learning platforms for the newly-merged Trust

Before Covid-19 and the merger, both Trusts conducted much of their instructor-led training in a face-to-face setting, but social distancing measures put a halt to that practice. So the L&D team’s first objective was to convert all face-to-face courses to online delivery methods using Totara Learn.

The Solution

Totara Learn was the Trust’s first online learning platform. The team rebranded the platform and named it “Care to Learn”, bringing together the goals and objectives of both legacy platforms. This provided the perfect opportunity for the Trust’s L&D team to put themselves in the learners’ shoes, re-evaluating their training offering to be more learner-focused.

Our Clinical Systems Training Team finds Care to Learn to be user-friendly, adaptable and flexible. We love using it —Clinical Systems Trainer

The flexible and dynamic audience functionality in Totara allowed the Trust to specifically and easily target staff groups to identify who needs what training, leading to happier learners and more accurate compliance reports.

As well as changing their approach to learning at work, the implementation of the LMS transformed compliance reporting at the Trust. Before Totara Learn, employees spent time double-checking data and manually compiling compliance reports. This is now a thing of the past as Totara Learn takes control of all the heavy lifting.

Since implementing the platform, the LMS has enabled staff and line managers to access real-time data—allowing busy clinicians to concentrate on their clinical work. Whilst it may seem a common IT integration now, many NHS national systems do not integrate with single sign-on. The Totara LMS does, and this is a huge benefit for all users; easing access, reducing queries and the helpdesk support time for the Trust’s Learning and Development (L&D) Team.

Over the last 12 months, the Trust has also taken its use of the LMS to the next level, by using it to empower patients to learn more about self-care and recovery in the aftermath of mental illness.

The Result

Thanks to the platform’s flexible approach to learning, the Trust had all the tools and resources it needed to take face-to-face training online in the midst of the pandemic and continue to further its mission today:

• Real-time data reporting boosts productivity and reduces human error
• Targeted learning ensures content gets to the right learners, at the right time
• Time-saving CPD (continuous professional development) allows front-line workers to focus on clinical services

Using their existing platform, Nichola Pallett, LMS Manager, created blended learning resources that enabled employees to continue to learn throughout this transformative period. Nichola integrated onboarding, videos, online workshops and much more through the platform. She also made use of time-saving tools such as embedded Microsoft Teams invites – creating a user-friendly learning ecosystem for the Trust’s learners.

We can accurately target training in a way we couldn’t do before, reporting is easy and more recently we’ve been able to build new training pathways incorporating different forms of learning resources. Our Learning and Development Administration Team finds it very easy to use, but also the number of emails, phone calls and complaints from our staff and managers using the LMS significantly reduced – so everyone is happy. — Nichola Pallett, Learning and Development Systems Manager

In late 2020, the Trust used Totara Learn to deliver patient training. The platform educates patients and helps them recover from mental illness with courses and workshops on recovery and self-care. This enables patients to gain the power and resilience to heal, which not only helps to improve their quality of life but also ensures access to support sessions when face-to-face training isn’t possible. 

New opportunities

2020 (and all it brought with it) revealed opportunities for the Trust to utilise a wide range of Totara Learn’s innovative online learning features. Care to Learn provided relief and respite for the L&D team in a worrisome time. It also enabled them to shift their thinking when it comes to learning. As such, the Trust’s new approach to learning is blended and versatile, catering to all their learners’ needs.

Oliver McGowan training is being piloted on Care to Learn. This is one of four training pilots being run on behalf of Health Education England. The training is designed to help raise awareness of the need for appropriate care and provision for people with autism or who have a learning disability.

The training pilot running in Gloucestershire marks a new approach for the L&D Team, with training content being delivered using innovative, bespoke IT equipment.

Going forward the Trust is planning to explore more time-saving aspects of Totara Learn. They’re investigating the integration of Business Intelligence database interrogation tools, such as Tableau, into the system. This will allow the Trust to:

• Analyse more granular data across training topics and services
• Increase understanding of their learners
• And provide managers with all their business intelligence in one place

Finally, the Trust hopes to make use of the e-lfh Volunteer passport and introduce a mobile app to provide more access and greater flexibility for their busy learners.

“We have found using Care to Learn very user friendly. It has enabled us to create our course with everything we had envisioned, using videos, MP3s, pictures and written information. It has been really useful to be able to separate people into cohorts and use the discussion board to discuss topics with individual groups.”— Rachel Griffith, Self-Management Lead, Live Better to Feel Better