Kingsmill Bakery will be running their Kindness Campaign for the third year in a row, as they are investing in local communities by funding primary care workers’ training. Since the programme began in 2021, Kingsmill has funded the training costs for 16 healthcare roles including Health Care Support Workers and Nursing Associates in Greater Manchester and Staffordshire.
The programme has allowed people to advance their careers and gain new skills, to give support to the NHS across the UK. The Kingsmill-funded training comes through an initiative between Health Education England, the National Skills Academy for Food & Drink and British food and drink companies which includes Kingsmill’s parent company Allied Bakeries.
“Primary care resources have never been so squeezed. Being able to offer advanced training for nurses allows us to deliver more integrated care whilst removing some of the pressures placed on GP surgeries,” said Darren Altus, Operations Director at K2 Healthcare. “For example, our latest apprentice recruits will go on to perform routine nursing tasks, run their own immunisation clinics while immediately putting into practice new skills via on the job training.”
The funding provided from Kingsmill is used for trainee health and care workers across care homes and doctors surgeries in the UK. The training courses involve two to three years combined university study and on the job training.
This latest round of funding has allowed for training in Lincoln to help eight trainees including Helen Marshall, 40, from Boston. She will be training at St Peter’s Hill Surgery.
“I recently turned 40 and have been looking for new work opportunities that will give me the chance to develop my career further over the coming years. I’m really looking forward to being able to support St Peter’s Hill Surgery in Grantham and eventually be able to run my own clinics taking blood and giving babies their immunisations.”
Emma Eggleton, Head of Marketing for Kingsmill explained the “ethos” of the Kingsmill Kindness campaign as a way of giving back to local communities.
“We do that in a number of ways – from making food donations, to supporting community groups and local sports teams. However, like our partnership with Save The Children, the apprenticeship levy scheme allows us to give back on a far larger scale. We are all aware of the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on primary care NHS workers, and we are delighted to be helping grow these services for the future. We wish our newest apprentices all the very best with their training and are excited to see all they go on to achieve.”
Kingsmill’s partnership with Save The Children saw the company donate UK£300,000 over a two year period to help struggling families in the UK.
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