Are you keen to enhance your use of digital tools, and your staff’s digital capacity? We are offering an opportunity to help your care home, its residents and local young people.

Care City is working in partnership with Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge Councils, Skills for Care and BHR CEPN, to recruit a new cohort of young people into a new role of ‘Digital Champion’ within the Care sector.  Digital Champions in Care scheme will provide low cost, but high impact, support for care organisations to enhance their use of digital tools.

We are looking for care homes who would be interested in employing a Digital Champion for 6 months with the costs of employment reimbursed.

What is the programme?

• The BHR Kickstart Digital Champions in Care programme is funded through the government's Kickstart
• It creates new, 6-month jobs for young adults aged 18 to age 24 on Universal Credit.
• The scheme covers the cost of their salary (at minimum wage for 25-hours a week,) Employer National Insurance and mandatory pension costs (where these apply); plus the costs of training and wrap-around support during the 6 month employment period.

What the programme will deliver:

• BHR Kickstart Digital Champions in Care will recruit, train and support a group of Digital Champions, to help care homes both to enable staff and residents to use digital tools, and to enhance their own digital capability as organisations.
• This programme provides an opportunity to attract new young people into your care setting by matching their digital skills and enthusiasm with the digital needs of care homes.

What the BHR Kickstart Digital Champions in Care partnership will provide to participating care homes:

• The scheme covers the cost of their salary (at minimum wage for 25-hours a week,) Employer National Insurance and mandatory pension costs (where these apply); plus the costs of training and wrap-around support during the 6 month employment period.
• £500 per Digital Champion towards costs of equipment / uniform and DBS required to undertake role
• Pre-recruitment assessment of Job Centre Plus recommended candidates and shortlisting for interview
• Comprehensive training for the Digital Champions to enable them to undertake the role effectively via a tailored programme delivered by Barclays Digital Eagles
• Regular support from a specialist Digital Mentor to help with understanding a care home’s position in relation to digital tools and to develop a workplan which meets the needs of your organisation’s digital priorities
• Regular 1-2-1 pastoral and employability support for the Digital Champion, provided through the local job brokerage service.

What we ask participating Care Homes:

• Interview a small number of candidates (who have been screened/supported by the job brokerage service with their application and suitability) – you will make the final decision on appointment of a Digital Champion (Interview coordination will be facilitated by the Kickstart team)
• Employ Digital Champion as a member of staff on a fixed term contract for 6 months at 25 hours per week. As with all new staff you would be responsible for organising the payroll, managing work hours, annual leave allowance, and managing the postholder
• Provide an induction and relevant statutory/mandatory training plus support and supervision including a line manager
• Work with the specialist Digital mentor to identify a work plan for the Digital Champion that meet the needs of your care setting and align with the digital upskilling work being led by the NEL digital team
• Work with employability and pastoral support provider including local job brokerage service as required to monitor progress of Digital Champion, resolve challenges, etc
• Where possible, consider the Digital Champion for other vacancies within the organisation at the end of the programme – via your usual application and interview process.
• Consider whether a digital champion role is one you want to create long term
• Provide a good quality reference at the end the of contract.

We will be taking employers on a first come first serve basis and we are hoping that the first Kickstart Digital Champions will be employed in June.

If you are interested in employing a funded Digital Champion please email us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we’ll talk you through the next steps.

For More Information:

Digital Champions Promotional Flyer

Frequently Asked Questions

Employer Briefing

More information about the wider government kickstart programme

Creating a new role to bridge the gap between Care Workers and Registered Nurses.

Four care workers from East London have been enrolled as Apprentice Nursing Associates (ANA) at the University of East London. Unusually, they are employed by Care Providers who do not employ a Registered Nurse, only accessing the apprenticeship through a unique system partnership.

The Nursing Associate role was introduced in 2016^[1] as a highly trained support role within nursing, bridging between unregulated Healthcare Assistants (HCA) and Registered Nurses. Nursing Associates are regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and work under the direction of Registered Nurses to deliver care based on agreed plans. 

Care City is leading on this ground breaking pilot, with grant funding from Skills for Care through the Workforce Development Innovation Fund and East London Health and Care Partnership and supported by North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), Barking, Havering & Redbridge Community Education Provider Networks (BHR CEPN) and the University of East London (UEL).  The pilot is focussed on a system challenge; as care homes and domiciliary care providers support people who are sicker and more complex, they need greater clinical skills. They would benefit hugely from developing Apprentice Nursing Associates within their teams, but they do not have a Registered Nurse who can fulfil the essential supervision and assessment functions required for the programme. This ‘ANA Catch-22’ is a barrier to innovation, and to the ambitions of many care workers across the country.

Together with UEL, BHR CEPN and NELFT, Care City is working to solve this problem, beginning with the four pioneers who enrol today. They will receive a new model of ‘arms-length’ supervision from a nurse at NELFT, Lauren Thorpe. With Lauren’s support, over time they will build collaborative networks of supervision, learning from the GPs, District Nurses and other clinicians who support their service users.

The long-term aim is to remodel the Residential Home and Domiciliary Care Agency workforce to include the qualified Nursing Associate role, continuing to utilise this ‘arms length’ supervision model, so helping to integrate health and care. At the same time, we aim to create a pathway into nursing for care staff, helping talented East London care workers to enhance both the support they provide to service users and their own careers.

Care Workers from Kallar Lodge Residential Care Home and Ebury Court Care Home, both based in Romford and Lodge Group Care, a domiciliary care provider are the first to participate in this pilot.

Benefits of having a registered Nursing Associate on the team include:

• increasing the capacity to deal with the increasing clinical needs of residents/clients.
• helping to reduce emergency admissions to hospital.
• providing a cost effective clinical team.
• Promoting career progression from care staff towards nursing, as well as supporting staff retention and attracting good quality staff.

Carer, Gisele Bolozi, Lodge Group Care commented “I have been a carer for 20 years. I love my job and the feeling of looking after others. I have learnt so many skills over the years and worked my way up to a senior carer giving me more responsibility and sharing my skill and knowledge with new staff. I am so excited to start the Apprentice Nursing Associate programme as I feel this is the next step for me in my career, and with having a young son I felt that I wouldn't be able to go to university. However the ANA programme has given me the opportunity to progress into a role I have always aspired to do”.

Katie Coffey, Lead Trainer, Lodge Group Care commented “We are very lucky to have a skilled, passionate, workforce who have a passion for learning. We encourage and support our carers to follow their goals and dreams in whatever career path they wish to pursue. Working in the healthcare sector, many of our carers aspire to become trained nurses, but due to family commitments, financial worries, to name just a few, many of them feel that it will always just be a dream. However, the ANA programme has helped them to make a real step towards this dream, providing an opportunity to learn whilst still working. This will not only benefit our carer who is extremely excited to start the course, but our company also, who will now have an Apprentice Nursing Associate in training, on the team”.

^[1] Shape of caring Review (Willis, 2015)

We are working with UCLPartners to support the adoption of an innovative digital programme, developed by academics and clinicians, to treat the long-lasting symptoms of COVID-19 infection.

The tool, which is now helping patients in over 10 hospitals across 5 NHS trusts, targets patients who have been discharged but are continuing to recover and rehabilitate at home. By delivering rehabilitation completely remotely, the programme helps NHS staff support more patients than would normally be possible in a timely and cost-effective way. It is currently helping more than 150 patients with their recovery.

The programme, Living With Covid Recovery, has been developed by a team that includes UCL, Barts Health NHS Trust, and NIHR ARC North Thames in collaboration with NIHR ARC Wessex, University of Southampton, University of Exeter and health-tech start-up Living With.

The rehabilitation tool targets primary symptoms that ‘long-haulers’ report experiencing for many weeks and even months after the peak of their infection – such as fatigue, anxiety and breathing problems. It combines evidence-based methods from physiotherapists, psychologists, dieticians and respiratory physicians to create bespoke treatment plans for each patient.

Sophie, a patient who has been using the app since August, said: "Five months after having Covid, I was still feeling very breathless and easily tired - even walks could frustratingly leave me coughing and wheezing. I have found the Living With Covid Recovery tool very helpful in tracking my progress and building up my activity levels. 

One of the most important aspects for me is the connection to support and advice from my own physiotherapist through the app, which has helped reassure me and feel that I'm not alone."

Following successful use across Barts Health NHS Trust, the project was awarded over £780,000 from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) to continue its expansion and help more patients in need.

Prof Elizabeth Murray, Deputy Director (Clinical) at UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering said: “It is exciting to see the programme beginning to spread across the regions and know that more patients experiencing the debilitating symptoms of Long Covid can access supported rehabilitation therapy to help them recover. 

Long Covid is a miserable illness, with its fatigue, brain fog, breathlessness and mental health sequelae.  These are all a direct result of the virus.  But there are tried and tested ways of helping people with these symptoms and Living With Covid Recovery is designed to help clinicians deliver these treatments to large numbers of patients in a supportive fashion. We know that people who are using the digital programme feel supported by their clinicians and are seeing their symptoms improve.”

Respiratory Physiotherapist Hannah Hylton, Barts Health NHS Trust, said: “The patients discharged often have very diverse needs and symptoms. Living With Covid Recovery is helping us reach out to as many of these in the community as possible to enrol them in the programme and support their recovery. With over 4m infections of COVID-19 in the UK since the pandemic began, there is a great demand for rehabilitation support."

The programme includes tailored advice, treatment plans and suggested exercises through an app for patients. It also supports clinicians with a dashboard to review patient progress and communicate, and a clinical pathway for how to provide safe, remote support. The treatment is informed by a wide range of clinical expertise including respiratory specialists, physiotherapists, dieticians, psychologists and GPs. The app and dashboard have been developed by Living With, a private digital health company that already delivers a range of remote condition management products across the NHS.

This study is one of many COVID-19 studies that have been funded by the NIHR as part of its Recovery and Learning call, totalling £5.5m in funding, to help better manage current and future waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and investigate its long-term impacts on the health and care system beyond the acute phase.

Join the national effort and sign up for the NHS COVID-19 vaccine research registry. Be part of the fightback against the virus by volunteering to be contacted by researchers to take part in COVID-19 vaccine research.

There are a number of vaccines being identified and safety-tested at the moment, but only large scale studies can give researchers the information needed about how effective they are.

The NIHR is working with the NHS and aims to recruit half a million people onto the registry by October, which will allow people to be put in touch with the vaccine studies in the coming months.

Researchers are looking for people from all backgrounds, ages and parts of the UK - including both people with or without existing health conditions - to take part in vaccine studies, to make sure that any vaccines developed will work for everyone.

The service is available to anyone aged 18 or over, living in the UK. There is no obligation to join in any study, if you are contacted. But by taking part, you could help researchers find vaccines to protect us all more quickly - which in turn could help the NHS and save lives. Sign up today!

Do you work in health and social care and love what you do? Could you bring your experience to life for a young person in East London, helping them consider future career opportunities? We’re looking for Ambassadors to help us. Time commitment to suit you. Just loads of enthusiasm and a love for your job needed.

We are working with The East London Health and Care Partnership (a partnership of the health trusts, local authorities and clinical commissioning groups across the 8 NEL boroughs) to support young people and job seekers into roles in health and social care.

The aims of the project are: 

• To ensure health and care jobs are filled by local people
• To provide local communities with increased awareness of the variety of careers available within health and care
• To provide a vehicle for showcasing health and care as a whole sector and promote various routes into the sector, at all levels
• To provide accessible information, signposting and role models to job seekers and young people to enable them to make informed decisions based on opportunities available

And we need help from those already working in health and social care to act as Ambassadors and promote what they do and why they love it, to motivate and inspire those who may not yet have considered a career in the sector.

Why career ambassadors are important

We know how powerful the influence on a young person’s career choice can be, just by hearing people talk about what they do. Meeting workers, visiting workplaces and undertaking work-based learning (even virtually) are even more impactful. Similarly, many job seekers may not have heard about the range of roles available or might have misconceptions about the work. Countering some of the myths people may have heard and inspiring them to consider work in care and health is essential so that more local people will consider work in the sector.

Ambassadors are workers who inspire and motivate people in a range of different ways to understand more about working in the sector. What makes ambassadors so special is that they’ve been there and have experience in the job they’re promoting, can talk with passion about their jobs and why careers working in health and care are such worthwhile jobs to consider.

We are fortunate to have some great local care and health ambassadors and feedback on the activities offered has been very positive. Over the last few years ambassadors have done a range of things including visiting schools, colleges and jobcentres; attending special careers events; hosting activities or offering work-based learning; delivering live broadcasts to schools and colleges; creating videos and case studies or using other means to actively promote their roles.

Covid 19 restrictions have changed what can take place and what is being requested by schools and colleges and the move to virtual working is opening up new possibilities. The number of job seekers locally has risen exponentially so to exploit this we need more people promoting work in the sector

Could you be an ambassador?

• Are you working in a health or care role in East London?
• Do you want to encourage others to consider your role / work like yours?

If you decide to become an ambassador we will match your interest to opportunities, provide an ambassador toolkit with activity ideas, support you before your event and ask you to share feedback, learning and suggestions after the event.

Ambassadors can engage in a wide range of activities not all of which would involve ‘face to face’ presentation or direct involvement with young people or job seekers.  It is assumed that until safe to do otherwise, most activities would be done virtually.

Get involved 

If you are interested in learning more, please email us This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we can arrange an informal chat.

We must do more to address this imbalance. We aim to deliver real change, using insights from our linked data & practical work with our health and care system to ensure population health is for everyone.

What are Long Term Conditions?

Long-term conditions or chronic diseases are conditions for which there is currently no cure, and which are managed with drugs and other treatment, for example: diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, arthritis and hypertension.

Long-term conditions are more prevalent in older people (58% of people over 60 compared to 14% under 40), in more deprived groups (60% more people in the poorest social class than the richest social class and 30% more severity of disease) and among black people. 

What are we doing about it?

Care City is based in London's poorest borough and exists to improve health and the determinants of health. That means it’s our job - in partnership with many others - to tackle poverty and racism, and the insidious connections between them. Across our work, we seek to open up access to healthcare, and lower barriers of stigma, language, place, cost and culture.

Through our Care City Cohort linked dataset (data from across 5 settings of care - hospital, primary, community, mental health and social care), we can see the part that race and racism plays in il-health. We will keep measuring and sharing this gap, and we hope to see it close.

As an organisation, our mission is not defined by racial injustice, and we don’t seek to pretend otherwise. However, unless we stand together with people and partners across Barking and Dagenham to tackle it, we cannot hope to achieve the mission that does define us; creating a happier, healthier older age for everyone.

For an example of our work to open up access to healthcare for people with long-term conditions, read here about our Test Bed programme.

Self Care Week is the annual national event that aims to raise awareness of what we can do to improve our physical health and mental wellbeing.  This year’s theme is Live Self Care For Life.

This message is particularly important in these trying times, and organisers, the Self Care Forum believes it is crucial that we do all we can for ourselves, our families and our colleagues to live as healthily as possible to keep up our resolve and to be able to cope with whatever comes our way.

Self Care Week is a time to take stock and make small changes that will help us take care of us.

The NHS website has lots of information. https://www.nhs.uk/