Swiis Foster Care Scotland

Swiis Foster Care Scotland has successfully used support from the Flexible Workforce Development Fund to offer group study opportunities with The Open University in Scotland, across multiple teams and roles in its organisation. 

Independent fostering agency, Swiis Foster Care Scotland, has a long-standing relationship with The Open University (OU) in Scotland in supporting the professional development of its workforce, across multidisciplinary teams and job roles. 

The Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF), funded by the Scottish Government through the Scottish Funding Council, gave Swiis the opportunity for the first time to access training for a significant number of employees at the same time. 

Ruth Caldwell, Learning and Development Manager for Swiis Foster Care Scotland, explains: “The FWDF funding came for us at a time when staff were working predominately from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many staff members had family caring responsibilities, which meant ensuring that people felt supported and connected.  

“Enabling several staff to jointly undertake learning meant that they created their own study groups and communicated with others who were also studying.

“It created a group learning culture and staff were able to interact on a different level and basis as they learned together.  

“The completion of courses also offered staff a real sense of achievement, built upon already proven skills and qualifications, and for many gave them confidence.” 

She says that this approach created a “camaraderie” across teams and that “being able to access funding through the OU, with its tried and tested online platform, was fantastic”. 

‘Meeting skills gap’ 

From social work managers to administrative staff, the fund has supported the professional development of several members of staff across all disciplines and filled important organisational skills gaps.

Courses taken included business leadership and management, project management, coaching, and studies covering approaches to mental health and children and young people.      

We looked at the variety of roles within our organisation and ensured that all staff were offered opportunities to grow and develop.

“We operate a service which aims at every level to be inclusive and supportive to everyone,” Ruth says. “Having a multidisciplinary workforce, we looked at the variety of roles within our organisation and ensured that all staff were offered opportunities to grow and develop.   

“As an organisation we are aware of the need to focus on individual staff, reflect on their unique skills, refine these, support promotional aspirations, and develop skills for the future.

“In this way we prepare for staff retiring, staff moving into new roles, leaving the organisation, and ‘stepping up’ in cases of short- and long-term illness.” 

She comments that the Learning and Development Team looked at “job families which are similar in nature and where staff could undertake training as a group” to identify opportunities for group learning which developed collaboration and promoted the use of this throughout the service.  

“This was indeed true of the coaching approach, which as an agency we have adopted to support the whole workforce, along with any new staff or students.

“As a learning organisation we ensure that any learning is supported and that it is threaded through every aspect of our work alongside staff and carers,” Ruth highlights. 

‘Created culture of learning and connection’ 

Reviewing Swiis’s experience of studying with the OU in Scotland through the FWDF, she concludes: “Staff have been able to build on their personal development and create a culture of learning and connection, not only for our own staff but those other students who studied alongside us on the courses.

For our organisation, the opportunity which the funding gave us will be recognised for many years to come.

“We have 13 members of our staff team who have benefited from studying through the FWDF funding and have two more who are, at time of writing, currently studying. 

“For our organisation, the opportunity which the funding gave us will be recognised for many years to come.” 

Looking forward, Swiis Foster Care Scotland is considering accessing microcredentials and shorter courses with the OU to continue to support ongoing professional development of staff. 

To find out more about how your organisation could benefit from the OU in Scotland’s FWDF, visit https://www.open.ac.uk/business/fwdf or email FWDF@open.ac.uk. You can learn about Swiis Foster Care Scotland at https://www.swiisfostercarescotland.com/. 

Photo by Neil Hanna