The Foundation of Nursing Studies is excited to announce a new programme funded jointly by The Burdett Trust for Nurses and NHSE/I. It will start early in 2020, the international year of the nurse and midwife.
This programme, building on the outcomes of the FoNS’s Celebrate Me report will take inspiration from our highly successful Inspire Improvement Fellowship and Creating Caring Cultures Framework, which has been developed over a number of years.
The aim of this programme is to enable aspiring and early career, learning disabilities nurses (between1-3 years post registration) to develop skills and confidence in the facilitation of person-centred cultures of care. In doing so, the people in their care, and their families, will experience effective, compassionate and safe care that is centred on their needs. Staff will feel more valued and more able to take responsibility for what happens in practice, contributing to building and sustaining cultures of person-centred practice. It will also enhance the retention of this important group of nurses.
Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England, said: ‘I am delighted to be supporting this programme which actively raises the profile of learning disability nursing by developing and inspiring talented individuals on their way to becoming our nursing leaders of the future.’
‘Building on the success of ‘Celebrate Me’ – I am very much looking forward to meeting candidates, selected for their delivery of high quality care and innovation, and hearing how it is directly helping them to improve care for people with a learning disability, their families and carers.’
‘I am very much looking forward to meeting those candidates selected to take part in this programme and given FoNS’s established reputation for delivering high quality, practice focused, innovation, I will be keen to see how the learning from this programme enhances the care being given to people with learning disabilities, their families and carers.’
Shirley Baines, CEO of Burdett said: ‘I am delighted the incredible work being done by the Foundation of Nursing Studies has been recognised and that NHS E&I are adding to the funding from Burdett. Developing learning disability nurses through the FoNS programme will now be even more effective and reach further. Not only is this good for nursing but more importantly the service users.’
Vic Rayner, Executive Director, National Care Forum said: ‘The National Care Forum is delighted about the announcement of the Learning Disability Nurse Fellowship, being offered by FoNs.’
‘We know that recruitment and retention of care staff is a real challenge – and the CQC recently highlighted this in their 2019 State of Care report. They also pointed to the scarcity of specialist staff able to provide care and support to those with LD and autism.’
‘This fellowship is a really positive and proactive response to those challenges and we are pleased to offer support to FoNs to promote, share, raise awareness and share learning from it.’
Please contact joanne.bosanquet@fons.org for further information.
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