An award-winning teaching care centre has appointed one of Wales’ top trainers.
Anita Curley, herself a ‘Gold medalist’ at the Wales Care Awards, has been appointed head of workforce development at the Pendine Park care organisation’s Wrexham training centre, Smartcare.
Mother-of-two Anita, from Kinmel Bay, is an approved Royal College of Nursing learning rep’.
As well as providing in-house training for Pendine’s own staff, Smartcare also offers innovative courses in personal development, supervisory, mandatory and regulatory training, for the hundreds of other care workers employed in the private sector.
“In the early days there was nothing, when I set up my own care home in Rhyl, which I ran for 16 years, there was no training available, it was learning on the job. Now there are far greater opportunities.
“There is sufficient training out there now to make sure that dignity in care is a reality,” said Anita, who is chairwoman of the RCN’s North Wales learning reps’ group.
Prior to her full-time appointment, Smartcare had secured Anita’s services on a consultancy basis while she shared her time as a tutor and assessor in health and social care at Llysfasi College, near Ruthin.
“I will be looking at all aspects of workforce development, both statutory and non-statutory, carrying out research and preparing bespoke training packages to meet specific requirements.”
With support from RCN, Anita hopes the learning centre within Smartcare could be somewhere in the building where people could access a library and computer, and seek her advice if she is available.
Born in Liverpool, Anita has spent more than 50 years living in Wales, except when she left to work in America as a young nurse in the 70s after initial training in the old Chester Royal Infirmary and City hospitals and spells at care homes in Nantwich and Stockport.
“A friend and I went to New Jersey and we had to train again because they were using things like piped oxygen and computers which at that time we had not had access to over here.
“I came back home for the New Year – got proposed to – went back to complete my 12 month contract but then returned to get married and settled in Kinmel Bay and became deputy matron at a Rhyl home before opening my own.”
Anita has also had experience of running her own training company and writing distance learning packages.
Last year Anita was among the winners at the Wales Care Awards, organised by Care Forum Wales, to highlight exceptional practice in the caring profession.
She was nominated in the category for commitment to training and workforce development and was presented with a gold award at a ceremony in Cardiff City Hall.
With more than 80,000 staff employed in the social care sector in Wales, there is tremendous scope, and demand, for quality training, which Anita’s 30 years-plus experience in the private sector is geared to meet.
“I can remember at the old Chester City Hospital there was a place called the “back block” which is basically where they put elderly people and frankly there was not much there for them.
“Thankfully we have come a long way from those days and made a lot of progress in the way we train and prepare people for the caring professions,” she said.
Pendine Park proprietor Mario Kreft said: “Anita is one of the most respected figures within in care sector in Wales and we are naturally delighted that she has taken on this new role.
“I have worked with Anita for more than 25 years through the North Wales Association and Care Forum Wales.
“I am extremely pleased thaqt she is joining the team at because, along with other colleagues, she was instrumental in setting up the first NVQ centre in the care sector.
“She has tremendous ability and experience and I am sure she will be a great asset to Pendine Park and other organisations who rely on us to provide first class training opportunities.”
