The Walsall Health and Social Care Institute has been announced as part of Walsall’s #NHS70 celebrations.

The scheme aims to help guarantee people in Walsall a job in social care once they have gained relevant qualifications.

The organisations involved include, NHS Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, Walsall Council, Walsall College and the University of Wolverhampton. Jatinder Sharma OBE, Principal & Chief Executive at Walsall College said:

“As an Outstanding provider of education and training, we are committed to ensuring individuals, businesses and our community have the skills necessary for a changing world.

“This exciting collaborative initiative will make high quality health & social care training available in Walsall, and support a sustainable labour market of skills for the sector.”

Jackie Dunne, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Access and Lifelong Learning) at the University of Wolverhampton added: “We are delighted to be working with our partners in the NHS and Walsall College on this exciting new initiative to support the development of the health and social care workforce in Walsall.

“We have a long history of providing high quality training and education across a broad range of health and social care courses in our region, and are committed to providing a more joined up approach to supporting the health and social care workforce and opening up employment opportunities for people in the local area.”

Professor Simon Brake, NHS Walsall CCG’s Chief Officer said: “We’re delighted to be supporting this initiative. Helping young people to enter Walsall-based training and education, which helps them secure vital jobs here in Walsall’s NHS and Social Care services is essential in our endeavour to make sure that health and social services are sustainable for the next 70 years across the borough.”