After several years of working around learning systems our carers found awkward to use, we have moved our mandatory and non-mandatory training onto The Learning Road. Here is why we changed, and what has happened since.

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Why we changed

We have used a number of learning management systems over the years. The feedback from our care team was consistent and fair: the systems were not easy to use, and they were not flexible enough to accommodate visits, travel, and shift patterns. Training that has to be done at a desk, in a block, is training that keeps getting put off.

So, when we looked again, ease of use and flexibility were the two things we would not compromise on. We chose The Learning Road (TLR), and the decision has paid off.

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What our carers have told us

Our staff have taken to it in a way they did not take to previous systems. The reason they give most often is the mobile app. Being able to complete a course on a phone means learning happens where our carers actually are, rather than requiring a trip to the office or an evening in front of a computer.

Several members of our team have said they now use short breaks between calls to work through part of a course. That flexibility is the single change they mention most.

The content helps too. TLR is built specifically for UK health and social care, rather than adapted from generic workplace training. Courses run for roughly 45 to 60 minutes, with optional narration for staff who prefer to listen rather than read. The library currently covers 43 courses across safeguarding, health and safety, care skills, and law and governance. Each course uses interim knowledge checks and a final assessment with an 80% pass mark, with unlimited retakes and review screens that explain any incorrect answers.

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Our office team has felt the biggest difference

As pleased as our carers are, our administration team is even more pleased. The change has saved them a considerable amount of time.

We use Careberry as our care management system, and TLR automatically updates our staff records and training matrix in Careberry as courses are completed. Nobody has to copy completion data between two systems or chase certificates before an audit.

That matters when we are inspected. Under Regulation 18 (Staffing) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, the duty lies with the registered person to ensure staff receive the training, support, supervision, and appraisal they need to carry out their roles. Regulation 17 (Good governance) separately requires us to keep accurate, complete and contemporaneous records, including records relating to our staff. A training matrix that keeps itself up to date is evidence that is ready when the Care Quality Commission asks for it, rather than something we assemble at short notice.

The platform also lets us assign the Skills for Care statutory and mandatory training list in a single step, sends refresher reminders 30 days before a course expires, and supports sign-off for competency-based tasks such as hoisting and PEG feeding, which have to be observed in practice as well as completed online.

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Building our own courses

Alongside the standard library, we can build our own courses, and we have started doing exactly that. The first is a short induction course, Welcome to Care & Carers, for new members of staff, covering how we work and what we expect of people joining our team. Courses we write ourselves sit alongside the catalogue courses and are tracked in the same way.

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What happens next

We plan to move more of our internal training onto the platform, including policy briefings and role-specific content, and to keep building short in-house courses wherever an off-the-shelf module is not quite the right fit for us.

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Disclosure: we use Careberry as our care management system, and The Learning Road was built by the team behind Careberry.