Why should I choose the St Monica Trust to provide my training and NVQ assessment?
We are a professional, committed and dedicated team of Trainers and NVQ Assessors who have many years’ experience working in direct care settings with older people and people with learning difficulties. Our aim is to provide you with affordable, quality training and NVQ assessment.

I would like to spread the cost of payments, is this possible?
YES. If your invoice is over £350 you can pay in monthly instalments. Please ask for further details.

How do I know that the training provided will meet current requirements, such as the
Common Induction Standards?
Our Learning and Skills department is headed by the Practice Development Manager who is part of the regional Skills for Care committee in the south west, the Care Learning Forum and the Care Learning Trainers Group. This ensures we are familiar with both local and national developments in health and social care and these are reflected in the training we provide. Moving and handling trainers are members of the National Back Exchange and maintain their current competence through this network. Our first aid trainers are members of the Association of First Aiders and this involvement ensures that our courses always contain the most up to date information and techniques. One of our moving and handling courses has achieved NCFE accreditation, and our Certificates in food safety in catering and health and safety are accredited by the CIEH. Courses also meet the requirements of the Common Induction Standards and the Skills for Care skill sets where appropriate.

Will my staff receive a certificate for any training they receive?
YES. We issue certificates to everyone who attends training. These are usually sent out within a couple of weeks of attending the course and many are given out on the day. The exception is for externally assessed courses such as food safety in catering and health and safety, when certificates are produced by the accrediting body and take a little longer.

My staff are worried about reading and writing for their NVQ and/or training. Will this be a problem?
NO. We work with people who have various levels of reading and writing ability. If we are informed before a course we can make arrangements to help people throughout the course and for any written tests, in a sensitive way, by providing someone to read out questions and record the answers for them. NVQ candidates will be encouraged to write something as it is also usually a requirement for their job, but we also use discussion or tape record evidence if reading and writing really is a problem for someone. This keeps writing to a minimum if necessary, although the award is likely to take longer to achieve this way. We are committed to promoting learning and development for all staff and believe that all should have equal access.

Will the NVQ assessors and trainers have an understanding of the Care Sector?
YES. We all have backgrounds in health and social care of at least 10 years’ experience, before becoming NVQ assessors and trainers. We have experience of working as care staff and managers with various client groups: older people, people with learning disabilities, people with dementia, and people with mental health difficulties.

When can my staff start an NVQ? Do you have set start dates or term times?
NO. Candidates can start at any time during the year, depending on assessor availability. Our assessors will only work with up to 30 candidates at any one time, ensuring everyone receives the level of support and assessor time necessary for good quality NVQ assessment. As a result, candidates start and finish throughout the year. Candidates may be placed on a waiting list if an assessor isn’t immediately available but people rarely wait more than six months to commence their assessment.

How long will it take staff to get their NVQ?
There are no hard and fast rules, but most of our candidates achieve a level 2 or 3 award in 6-9 months or a level 4 award in 9 - 12 months. We anticipate that the Leadership and Management for Care Services (LMC) Level 4 - the replacement for the RMA - takes approximately 12 months. The combined LMC and Health and Social Care Level 4 award should take approximately 18 months.

How much support can I expect for NVQ assessment?
Our assessors are proud of the support they give NVQ candidates – contributing to our candidates’ enviable success rate. We provide workshops to help staff collect their knowledge evidence and lots of guidance and support on a one-to-one basis. Many years of assessing NVQs means we are very familiar with the variety of evidence that can be provided. Our Practice Development Manager is Chair of the national Association of Care Training and Assessment Networks (ACTAN), and all assessors attend regular standardisation meetings, maintaining their professional development through these and other networks.

I have my own NVQ assessors in my workplace but I need somewhere to register and certificate their NVQ candidates. Do you offer this service?
YES. You would have to register your NVQ assessor with the St Monica Trust NVQ Assessment Centre, and we would need to check their competence to assess and that they are qualified NVQ assessors. We would then include them as part of our standardisation meetings with our other NVQ assessors (we hold these every other month), and we would allocate their NVQ candidate an Internal Verifier, who monitors the quality of assessment. We would also provide the administration to register and certificate each candidate with City and Guilds and issue their certificates. We charge £250 for each NVQ Candidate for this service.

Sometimes my staff can’t attend the training I have booked them on because of staff shortages. Can I have a refund or have a place on the next course for free?
PROBABLY. We try to be as flexible as possible because we understand the difficulties of scheduling staff training while maintaining a high quality care service. If you give us more than five weeks’ notice there is no charge at all. If less, then whether or not we charge will simply depend on the expenses we have incurred. Often, if a course is well-attended and we are using our own trainers, we will transfer your booking to the next available course at no cost. However, if you have several staff booked on a course, withdrawing them may mean the course is not viable to run and we may be liable for costs for an external trainer. For this reason we retain the right to charge for cancellations that are made less than five weeks before training commences.

If my staff member starts his or her NVQ with you and leaves before completing, will I still be liable for the full cost of the NVQ?
NOT NECESSARILY. Usually, we are able to offset some of your payment to another candidate that you may wish to register in the staff member’s place. You will have to pay for the registration fees that we have incurred and we will calculate assessor time spent with the candidate prior to him/her leaving. This is calculated at between £65 - £100 per unit achieved, depending on the level of award and the amount of assessor time spent on each unit. If you have paid more than we estimate it has cost us, we shall be happy to deduct that amount off the invoice for the next candidate you register with us.

Will staff have to travel to St Monica Trust to attend training or be assessed for their NVQ?
We are able to provide many of our courses in your workplace, and if you have several staff who require the same training this is often an affordable option. For NVQ assessment, particularly for levels 2 and 3, we aim to provide as much of this in your own workplace as possible, saving you the problems associated with staff travel and time out of the building. For the LMC award, this is more usually covered at St Monica Trust where we hold supporting workshops. However, as with all NVQs there must be observation in the workplace of real work activity. It is possible for us to assess individual managers at work, so just ask!