Primary Care Trust benefits from radical e‐learning treatment: Training and development gets a shot in the arm

Abstract

Purpose

Provides a detailed account of how a UK Primary Care Trust implemented a learning management system incorporating self‐service and e‐learning functionality.

Design/methodology/approach

Case study. Written by workforce planning manager for Hertfordshire PCTs who was intimately involved in the management of the e‐learning project. Provides a detailed account of how the learning and development team of the newly merged PCT implemented self‐service learning.

Findings

Imagine you are part of a learning and development team that has been given the responsibility for training 3,500 staff spread across more than 100 different locations. This was the task facing the 20‐strong team at the Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust. The formation of Primary Care Trusts marked a radical shift in how the NHS is organized and financed at primary care level; its aim was to improve the delivery and quality of primary care and to reduce costs. It has long been recognized that the extent to which this can be achieved depends almost exclusively on the levels of competence and skills shown by NHS workers. The merging in 2006 of Herfordshire's existing eight PCTs into two new PCTs under a shared management team provided the newly merged learning and development team with the chance to completely revamp the whole operation. They aimed to create a learning and development system with self‐service learning and e‐learning functionality that would be universally accessible to all those working in the newly created PCTs.

Practical implications

Provides a useful case study example of how to create a learning management system accessible to all and which was able to raise the profile of training within the organization; identifies the benefits for staff, management and organization.

Social implications

Describes how the learning management system was able to help maintain the quality of learning and development data for risk management and mandatory reporting.

Originality/value

Offers management an account of how one UK Trust implemented a learning management system that incorporated self‐service and e‐learning.

Citation

(2010), "Primary Care Trust benefits from radical e‐learning treatment: Training and development gets a shot in the arm", Strategic Direction, Vol. 26 No. 5, pp. 16-18. https://doi.org/10.1108/02580541011035410