Learning

“All the world is my school and all humanity is my teacher.” George Whitman​

The takeaway 🤓

👶We are all learning and we're all beginners and experts at something. We can all learn from each other no matter who we are - someone getting support, a family member, an independent care worker, a community volunteer, an employee or anyone else connected with us.

​👥Our learning and training focuses on relationships and the power and compassion working within them. If it's not coming back to this or starting with this then something's gone wrong.​

🧪Experimenting is a brilliant and lasting way to learn and we change how we work as we learn new things.

​📏There is no one-size-fits-all. Diversity and choice are essential.

Why we need this

​🌱We work on principles of reciprocity, mutual care and respect for lived experience. If we don't embed this into how we learn we'll lose a fundamental piece of us (and we won't learn much). Our principles around choice and decision making extend to learning. It's tailored to the person or Team and people can pick and choose what they participate in.​👩‍⚖️We need to comply with the Care Act 2014, Health and Social Care Act 2008, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, CQC regulation 18, Human Rights act (1998). This means we also have minimum learning requirements for people holding roles that come into the scope of these Acts (for example, paid care and support workers).

​🤩Outcomes we want

• A diverse group of teachers throughout our co-op who represent the full cross-section of our membership and perspectives (e.g. getting support, family, health professional etc)

• For Teams to have the skills needed to meet the needs of those they are supporting

• For some people starting out as community volunteers and peer supporters to transition into paid self-employment or employment

• Accessible, effective, enjoyable learning available to and provided by our Team Members (including Team Co-ordinator and Team Leader/Owner)

• Face to face learning opportunities and experiences are available at the 'shortest possible distance' i.e. within your Team, Circle and community

​🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️Who it affects

Everyone! (always)

​🃏Key players

Learning Circle

They create the overall education plan for Equal Care Coop. They assess the education needs of Equal Care Co-op as an organisation and coordinate the educational opportunities to achieve this. They keep an eye on any changes in legislation or health and social care knowledge which need to be included in education and they consult other Circles.

Learning Lead

The learning lead acts as a resource for support, advice and mentoring for the Coach and Equal Care Facilitators and any other workers as needed. The role is also responsible for developing our approach to learning through peer learning, the Equal Care Certificate, making available educational resources and opportunities and bringing together the people best equipped to co-produce an approach to learning that helps the meet the outcomes we want for Equal Care Co-op to come into being.

Coach

The coach has statutory accountability for ensuring that all qualifications of workers and independent care and support workers are up to date. Where workers have qualifications that involve regulatory bodies this includes ensuring that the registration is in date.

The Coach is responsible for checking our evaluation of learning offers and ensuring that they are effective. This is within the overall context of our social impact policy, which focuses on how we evaluate and learn as an organisation.

Community Circle Organiser

Supports the development of learning sessions within your organisation

​🎯Impact

Impact type	On who (a group of people, the co-op itself)
Cost	Time and commitment of both learners and teachers. Fees for external training
Health & Well being	​'A good quality education is the foundation of health and well-being'​ Feeling that you have the right skills to do something reduces stress and supports flourishing (see our feeling capable policy) Learning peer to peer from each other is empowering and enabling
Equality	We recognise that everyone has something to teach us People associated with us have equitable access to education
Time	Significant. Learning Circle Members will take time to keep the policy fit for purpose, create learning pathways and co-ordinate educational opportunities
Data	Personally Identifiable Data, storage and processing of qualifications, learning records and evaluations of sessions, Associate Teacher and Teachers