Reflecting on the Strategy to enable social care placements for student nurses and nursing associates

Following the launch of the ‘Strategy to enable social care placements for student nurses and nursing associates’, Lucy Gillespie and Claire Leenhouwers, National Professional Leads for Nursing at Skills for Care, reflect on what it means for social care nursing.

Last month we were delighted to launch the first ever strategy to see social care as a placement of choice for all student nurses and nursing associates.

It was a truly collaborative effort, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) with ongoing support from the Chief Nurse Deborah Sturdy and the team at the DHSC. We also worked in close partnership with the Council of Deans Health who were able to ensure the strategy would land with universities and colleges hosting nursing programmes, and with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) who were able to support the development of the strategy and endorse its publication and significance in nursing education.

We received support from sector colleagues and wider stakeholders which has been a key factor in the development and publication of the strategy.

This collaborative approach has meant that the strategy has had a really positive impact and reception so far.

The strategy is not a ‘tick box exercise’ where every nursing student must have one placement in social care, nor is it solely about capacity for practice learning environments, or even that all nursing students might consider social as an immediate career opportunity; it is about fundamentally changing the way our future nursing graduates value the social care environment and its essential contribution to the healthy lives of people who draw on care and support.

It's about linking in with the current government direction supporting people to be as near to home as possible and preventing ill health or further deterioration.

In addition to this we have the context of limited roles for graduate nurses and nursing associates in the NHS this year which is likely to be the case for an extended period of time.

As part of our ongoing work to promote social care as a career destination of choice we’re pleased that this strategy will offer a longer-term solution to promote social care opportunities for graduates. In order to support and encourage new graduates to consider social care as a career destination we know that a preceptorship offer is key. The recent Florence Nightingale Foundation preceptorship pulse check report identified that 86% of students expect to see a structured preceptorship programme on entering the workforce. To support providers in providing preceptorship Skills for Care have developed a free preceptorship offer to ensure social care organisations embed preceptorship programmes to support the transition from student nurse to newly qualified.

From a personal perspective Lucy reflects:

I was delighted to see the 10-year plan mention the importance of the diversity of student practice learning opportunities.

I really want future professionals to explore social care as a learning environment - it's exciting and bountiful of opportunity to learn about nursing work, for example, early prevention, managing complex care, sudden and acute deterioration, mental illness, end of life care, and working with people who might be more vulnerable,

Social care nursing offers an even greater opportunity to change the life course for people. Social care is not a nice to have as part of the nursing curriculum - it’s an essential, a place where nursing leads and thrives and all nursing students should be interested in that.

Reflecting on her personal involvement in the strategy, Claire adds:

The launch of this strategy which supports social care as a placement of choice is professionally one of my proudest moments as a registered nurse.

I’m proud for so many reasons. In October 2023 I was asked to use my higher education background to create a piece of guidance around developing nursing placements in social care to accompany our existing guidance on all that social care nursing placements have to offer.

The guidance was designed to help care providers navigate the world of higher education, and what’s required to come on board and host student nurses. It involved engaging with higher education providers nationally, with care providers and most importantly those who draw on care and support. The message from all those who participated was clear: we want this to work; we want to see nursing students in social care.

When this work was completed, I went back to working in higher education and developing placements. I know that from an education perspective there’s a desire and need to build placement capacity outside of the NHS. Having done this work I know it is not easy, knowing where to go and how to approach it remains tricky.

Having done it I also know it is possible and beyond that, it is hugely rewarding. I’m proud to speak to care providers now who I ‘onboarded’, out there hosting students for the first time and showcasing all that social care has to offer. At a time when roles are not always guaranteed in the NHS there is a noticeable shift in focus towards a career that has always been there, but not always valued; a social care nursing career.

From where this work started we now have a strategy that’s bold enough to say ‘every nursing student should experience social care’. And why shouldn’t they? For us this strategy is about more than placements. It's about the bigger picture. If a nursing student doesn’t visibly see social care in their nursing curriculum, or in their placement circuit, they won’t recognise its importance. And it is hugely important.

Returning to Skills for Care this year and seeing this strategy launched; “proud” doesn’t begin to cut it.

Find out more about the strategy.

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