skills for life in social care

We know that millions of people in the UK struggle with communication and number skills and this is reflected across the whole of the adult social care workforce.

There are many reasons why some people have not been able to develop their communication and number skills. These include:

• Absence from school due to illness
• Unsettled home life or family problems
• Poor teaching
• Inadequate support for a visual/hearing impairment or dyslexia
• English as an additional language

We also tend to lose skills that we don't use regularly. This is why many of us would now struggle with some of the maths we could do in school and it is also why most people are better at reading than writing - they simply get much more practice.

Poorly developed Skills for Life can have a significant impact on people's lives, negatively affecting their home life and reducing their chances of getting and keeping a job.

Social care staff with poorly developed literacy or language skills could have real difficulty reading and understanding written information, such as health and safety instructions, policy guidance and reports. They might also be unable to write clearly or accurately when completing records, forms and reports that are central to the day-to-day provision of care.

Social care staff with poorly developed numeracy skills may be unable to estimate quantities, costs and timings or do routine calculations even with the help of a calculator. In turn, these skills gaps can lead to poor time management, wastage of resources and more worryingly, errors in recording health information or measuring prescribed medicines. The potential impact of such errors on employers, staff and people who use services cannot be overstated.

As well as affecting the general quality of care provided, these skills gaps make it far harder for employees to undertake vocational qualifications and could also prevent organisations from meeting regulatory requirements or achieving successful inspection results.