Our specialist in-house training and development department is responsible for all of our social care training across the organisation. The team work in collaboration with external partners and experts, and we welcome the opportunity to share our knowledge and experience with other social care providers across the UK.
VSA employs 650 people in the city of Aberdeen. Our training and development department delivers a wide variety of accredited and continuous development training courses across the year. For example, these include courses such as: first aid, mental health first aid, adult and child protection, manual handling, palliative care, dementia training, additional support needs and behavioural support strategies.
Behavioural Support Strategies (BSS) is managed and coordinated by VSA. It offers training and support to develop and implement the BSS programme of dealing with challenging behaviour in Scotland.
The need to establish BSS was driven by changes in European and Scottish legislation, e.g. Human Rights Act 1998 and Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 which required organisations to have recognised systems of accountability in place to ensure quality of provision for people who use services. The BSS approach is an established and recognised method of achieving this for people who, on occasions, may challenge services.
Working in partnership with Aberdeen City Council, VSA's Additional Support Needs Advisory Project (ASNAP) aims to support local children service providers to facilitate the integration of children and young people living with additional support needs in nurseries, crèches, playgroups and After School Clubs throughout Aberdeen. Our aim is to sustain children’s access to mainstream services.
People trained in Mental Health Support and First Aid
People trained in Palliative Care
People trained in Dementia Awareness
New lifesavers (due to First Aid Training)
People trained in Adult Protection
People trained in Child Protection
People successfully completed a VSA induction course
People enrolled in Modern Apprenticeships
Behavioural Support Strategy (BSS) training sessions completed for 1,039 people