DEVELOPING all staff and volunteers to their full potential is the aim for bosses at Kirkwood Hospice.

The hospice, which serves the people of Kirklees with palliative and end-of-life care, has more than 100 staff members and more than 700 volunteers. Personnel range from clinical experts to retail staff.

All staff work through a Knowledge and Skills Framework, an initiative from the NHS which identifies common themes for staff to be able to demonstrate progress in their development year-on-year. This is linked to a yearly appraisal where core themes are discussed, any gaps in knowledge identified and a training plan agreed.

All new staff are required to attend an induction programme during the first month of their employment.

Training is also given to the hospice’s retail team. Kirkwood has 17 shops and over the past year their turnover has been £1.6m – accounting for some 33% of the annual £4m that is required to run the hospice.

Shop managers took part in a team building programme, which included an away-day featuring games and challenges designed to show the importance of teamwork, co-operation and trust to achieve success in communication, organisation, goals and strategic planning. .

Hospice quality and education manager Anne Goodlad said: “The away-day now forms the basis for changing the format of managers’ meetings which will have small bite-sized education sections. The day has also been run for a third time for all deputy managers and assistants in the shops.”

She added: “Following the away-days, shop managers have identified where certain parts of the training have helped them in areas of their work and how they had worked through processes as a result.”

The hospice also uses its skills to educate district nurses and care home staff in a joint venture with Locala and Kirklees Learning and Development. Hospice staff have developed a bereavement course for teachers, external staff and volunteers and an advanced communication course for professionals, including GPs.