Higher Development Award
The Higher Development Award (HDA) is a personal and professional development programme that aids the enhancement of clinical and non-clinical support workers' skills. It is free for employers and support staff. The programme helps workers to improve patient outcomes and understand leadership and decision-making skills across work settings.
One of the requirements of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is to widen access to NHS jobs and careers, working with colleges will help to meet this and support existing staff development and progression.
What is the Higher Development Award
The HDA was developed in 2016 with education and training leads and support workers in North West London. It follows on from the care certificate and aims to bridge the gap between completing the certificate and moving on to progression opportunities within their organisation.
There are a variety of modules included, depending on the programme, with functional skills and coaching being a core part of the course. Each programme runs over six days across a six-month period, or nine days for learners on the level three diploma.
A key part learners undertake is the service improvement project. This involves establishing a project that they can work on and implement within their area, they then present this back to their peer group at the end of the programme to complete the learning cycle.
"The Higher Development Award provided us with an opportunity to develop a new training programme which supports individuals to return to education, develop confidence, and enhance their employability and academic skills. South Devon College is working with Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust, and Devon County Council, to support progression within the workplace, or within education." - Natalie Collins, Programme Coordinator for Health Apprenticeships, South Devon College
Benefits and outcomes for learners
- The HDA aims to equip support workers with the skills, techniques, tools, and knowledge to improve their personal confidence and capability, unlock leadership skills, enhance functional and digital skills, and improve the experiences and outcomes of patients, service users and families.
- The service improvement project section of the course puts learners’ ideas front and centre, taking learning directly back to the workplace and embedding big impact, long lasting small changes.
- The programme results in either an Institute of Leadership and Management recognised award or a level two or three qualification in leadership and management alongside the HDA qualification and functional skills qualifications if not already achieved.
- Learners benefit from increased confidence and the realisation support workers can develop within their roles and make improvements to their service areas. Employers can realise staff potential with progression pathways for further development or supporting other roles and responsibilities in the support worker workforce and prepares them for apprenticeship opportunities.
"I will certainly tell others about this programme, as I believe everyone whether working as clinical or non-clinical should study the HDA because it helps every student to gain new knowledge and skills." - HDA student, South Devon College
Growth of the Higher Development Award programme
In 2020, the programme led to London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust winning the Nursing Times award for Best Workplace for Learning and Development and Lambeth College secured £200,000 from the London Mayor to support the course, a first for health-based training.
Since then, the programme has engaged with anchor institutions, further education colleges, local trusts, and social care providers, fostering system-wide support for support worker development through the HDA. It has created a pipeline for employment and progression, upskilling entry-level and existing staff. Now colleges nationwide continue to deliver the programme with consistent funding from the Adult Education Budget.
Feedback has been positive, with some areas using the HDA programme to support Band 2 to Band 3 role transitions. The Association of Colleges, NHS Employers, and NHS Trusts collaborated on a guide for working with local colleges, covering the HDA and other staff development courses.
“Implementing a service project in their clinical areas is the most important element of the programme as they don’t realise that they can come up with these ideas and implement from start to finish to make improvements in their work area. This is what gives the learners the confidence boost they need for their personal development.” – Cess Quiambao, Head of Apprenticeships, Chelsea & Westminster.
Tips for implementing the Higher Development Award in your organisation
- Understand what is already available within your organisation to support education and training for clinical and non-clinical staff.
- Establish who you need to partner with and which providers you can source in your locality to deliver the HDA programme.
- Ensure you have a dedicated project coordinator and informative communications to engage support workers and their managers across your organisation.
- Understand why learners are interested in the programme, for some it may be acquiring functional skills and qualifications, others for career progression or increasing self-confidence and understanding more about their work environment.
- Support your support workers with the time to fulfil the course by ensuring line managers know the value of the HDA qualification.
- Pre-planning of the curriculum, study days, assignment due-in dates can really help with time management and support for managers and learners.
Supporting learners on the Higher Development Award
Some of the learners' key considerations before joining the programme:
- The flexibility allowed to remain in their role while studying. There are only six study days for the award or nine days for the diploma and additional learning is undertaken in their own time.
- How the programme will help them to continue to provide the best possible care to patients.
- What progression opportunities the programme could provide and how it could offer a platform to take that next step.
Read all about Mateusz Bat, currently based at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, and how the Higher Development Award brought a multitude of benefits to the early stages of his career.
Case studies
South East London AHP Faculty pilot
In response to NHS England’s target for 60 London-based AHP Support Workers to achieve the HDA by April 2025, the South East London AHP Faculty (SEL AHP Faculty) piloted the HDA to determine its benefits for patients, services, and AHP Support Worker skill development and job satisfaction.
Tips for offering the Higher Development Award from SEL AHP Faculty
- Forming a good working relationship with FE colleges is crucial to being able to promote the HDA effectively to your organisation. For each level of the programme, ensure you understand the number, frequency, and duration of the study days required as these vary between providers
- Provide targeted information on the benefits of the HDA to both support workers and managers when you promote the programme. For AHP support workers, the SEL AHP Faculty drew on the personal and professional development opportunities the HDA affords. For managers, the occupational relevance of the HDA was demonstrated by mapping its learning outcomes to the non-clinical domains of the national AHP Support Worker Competency, Education, and Career Development Framework (Health Education England, 2022)
- Although typically within the remit of FE colleges, consider providing wrap-around support for learners, particularly if the HDA is new to your organisation. SEL AHP Faculty offered support with onboarding and off-boarding, a pre-programme preparation session, and monthly virtual support forums to facilitate peer learning. To date, there has been 0 per cent attrition from the pilot cohorts
- Checking in with managers throughout the programme will help to ensure that a joined-up approach is taken to supporting learners to embed their learning from the HDA in the workplace
- Plan for sustainability from the start. Collect short testimonials and case studies from learners and managers, and consider collating the solutions to any challenges you encounter in an FAQ document. These resources can be added to and used year-on-year to promote the benefits of the HDA to your AHP workforce.
Pilot outcomes
SEL AHP learners and their managers have reported the following benefits of HDA completion:
- Improved communication and working relationships with patients and colleagues
- Increased clinical capacity of registered and non-registered AHP staff resulting from service improvement projects that have led to meaningful departmental changes
- Increased ability to support the learning and development needs of others
- Increased participation in meetings, teamwork and presentations
- Improved efficiency in day-to-day work resulting from appropriate use of the wider team’s skill mix
- Significantly increased confidence and sense of value as an AHP support worker.
This feedback indicates that the HDA is well-placed to address the lack of occupationally relevant training for AHP support workers across the education, leadership, and research pillars of practice. As well as having the potential to become a vehicle for delivering the retention and transformation needed to grow the AHP support workforce and registered AHP professions.
Further resources
If you would like to explore options in offering the programme within your organisation, please contact the talent for care team .
Read more about supporting and upskilling HCSWs using the healthcare support worker learning and development roadmap.
