Round up of Skills for Care news and events

Skills for Care supports a range of workforce developments in the region and has held a number of events this year.

Mastering change
A series of Master classes have been organised to help social work practitioners adapt their roles to meet the needs of transforming adult social care. Classes are delivered by University of Worcester and Coventry University.
Read more

Skills for Care and Foundation Degree Forward are collaborating in a series of developmental pilots to design and deliver foundation degrees for the Adult Social Care workforce. University of Staffordshire and University of Worcester were successful in their bids to pilot the degrees in Long Term Conditions and Learning Disability.
Read more

£1000 cash and free training offer
Job Centre Plus and the Department of Health have launched Care First Careers, a new initiative to help employers recruit the talent they need. The scheme offers £1000 and free pre-employment training to employers who recruit a new care worker.
Read more

Route into social care
Skills for Care is working with Jobcentre Plus to provide a way for unskilled, unemployed people to find employment in adult social care. Known as a ‘sector route-way’, the scheme helps to equip people with skills and build their confidence so they can move into entry level jobs.

There are three key elements:

• development of local partnerships between social care employers, learning providers and Jobcentre Plus
• a route-way toolkit, which is a set of practical resources designed specifically for Jobcentre Plus staff
• the route-way course, which is a pre-employment training programme that lasts at least 60 hours and can be taught flexibly over a three to six week period.

Read more

Accolades award scheme opens
The Skills for Care Accolades 2010, in partnership with the DH, is now open and taking nominations in 14 categories. Achieving an Accolade proves you are improving the lives of people using social care services through workforce development.
Read more

Analysis of social care workforce
Skills for Care in the West Midlands has commissioned analysis of the National Minimum Dataset for Social Care (NMDS-SC). The report presents an overview of the adult social care workforce in the region, including an analysis of pay, turnover and vacancy rates. It provides an assessment of the impact of the recession on the sector, and some regional workforce projections based on national scenarios. Recommendations are made for maximising the potential of the dataset, including expanding the coverage of the voluntary sector which will be key in future service design and delivery.
Read more

Assisting directors to bring about change
The Integrated Local Area Workforce Strategy (InLAWS) project is a joint initiative between Skills for Care and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS). It aims to develop effective ways of supporting Directors of Adult Social Services (DASS) with workforce commissioning across their local area.
The vision is to have the right workforce doing the right things at an achievable cost. This will involve synchronising service commissioning, financial and workforce strategies.
InLAWS will assist directors in bringing about change to achieve towards personalised and safe adult social care. It will provide a common approach and practical tools to help directors ensure a steady supply of skilled, capable and competent practitioners for established social care providers and service users with responsibility for buying their own care.
Read more

A national InLAWS event is taking place on Wednesday 30 June 2010 in central London. The event will be publicised in the Skills for Care national enews bulletin throughout April and May.
Read more

Joint Skills for Care / Valuing People Learning Disability Workforce Network
Another successful Workforce Network event was held on 9 March 2010. It featured updates on the Qualifications and Credit Framework, Valuing People Now and the Common Induction Standards refresh project. The meeting was jointly funded by Valuing People and Skills for Care West Midlands, and organised by the British Institute for Learning Disabilities (BILD).
Read more

Skills for Care has developed a Guide to Workforce Planning for providers of adult social care, as part of the InLaws project. It is designed for busy employers who need help with planning their workforce. Contact joanne.keenan@skillsforcare.org.uk

West Midlands Alliance of Assessors, Verifiers and Trainers in Health and Social Care
The sixth of our Alliance events took place at the Village hotel on 10 February 2010. Trainers and assessors from around the region were given important regional and national updates about the skills agenda, and were able to take part in a wide range of workshops. The next Alliance event takes place on May 19th at the Village Hotel, Walsall.
Read more

End of Life Care Regional e:Learning launch
This event was jointly organised by the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority and Skills for Care West Midlands, as part of a series of national and regional launches of e:learning materials for End of Life Care. It produced some interesting ideas for further investment in health and social care workforce development for 2010 /11.
Read more

Dignity Project
Skills for Care West Midlands is using its sub regional dissemination model to promote the Dignity campaign to social care organisations. An assessment of the effectiveness of this approach will be published on the organisation’s website.

The organisation and Department of Health West Midlands staged a ‘Celebrating Dignity’ event in April. One thousand delegates attended. Key note speeches were delivered by actress and older peoples’ rights campaigner, Amanda Waring, and Falklands veteran Simon Weston.
Read more

Learning and the Personal Assistants Workforce
Held in March this year, the workshop was an opportunity for learning providers to expand their understanding of how the personalisation agenda is transforming the social care sector. Its purpose was to share good practice in delivering learning to people funding their own care, and to consult on draft guidance for training providers. The event was attended by over 70 people and evaluation was very positive.
Copies of the latest version of Guidance for Learning Providers on Direct Payments is available from Jerry Conway. Email: jerry.conway@lsc.gov.uk

Practitioners’ symposium
Skills for Care West Midlands staged the Regional Social Work Practitioner Symposium earlier this year, to explore and discuss the implications of the Social Work Task Force recommendations, and to inform delegates of national and regional projects that will assist in implementing the 15 recommendations.
Read more