Skills for Care backs Carers Week

News release 13 June 2011

Skills for Care is backing Carers Week by launching Carers Matter - Everybodys Business, guidance to help employers and organisations support carers better through learning and development of staff.

Skills for Care worked in partnership with Skills for Health talking to carers and professionals working with carers to produce the guidance and practical tools based on a set of Common Core Principles for Working with Carers.

The Government is committed to improving carers' experiences of services by making sure that training on carer awareness is an accepted part of the landscape - in social care, health and in other services.

The Department of Health asked Skills for Care and Skills for Health to work on materials to help make this happen and to provide greater standardisation and guidance in delivery and approach in a field where a lot of different products and approaches have already been developed.

As a result of this work, the government have said that Carers Matter - Everybodys Business 'will enable commissioners to devise bespoke training for their local health and social care workforce' (Recognised, Valued and Respected; Next Steps for the Carers Strategy HM Govt 2010).

"Skills for Care worked with Skills for Health and sector partners to produce practical guidance that is not only fit for purpose, but recognises the central role carers play in the delivery of social care services in our communities," says Skills for Care CEO Sharon Allen.

Carers Support Wiltshire has been using Carers Matter - Everybodys Business to develop and deliver training at Beversbrook Medical Centre, Calne.

"Instantly I was really impressed with it, and really excited by it actually - there was new stuff there and it is really useful, particularly the common assumptions and the common core principles, which we are likely to use a lot," says Helen Gough, Development Worker at Care Support Wiltshire.

Carers Matter - Everybody's Business includes:

• A set of national (England) common core principles for working with carers and a framework for planning carer-awareness training. Training developed or delivered can be based on these meeting the national standard.
• Help in defining the areas where staff need to improve their skills and knowledge.
• How to enhance existing carer-awareness training provided to professionals by using a national framework and fresh ideas.
• A bank of ideas and activities that can be uses to begin to deliver training.
• Providing carers with a standard to which professionals are expected to work.

For more information on Carers Matters - Everybody's Business go to www.skillsforcare.org.uk/carers or www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/carers-matter

Media enquiries:

Paul Clarke: 0113 2411297/ 07977519287. paul.clarke@skillsforcare.org.uk

Notes to editors:

1. Skills for Care is the employment-led strategic body for workforce development in adult social care in England, which is licensed jointly with its UK allies by UKCES to be the 'Skills for Care and Development' Sector Skills Council (SSC). Both organisations are chaired by Professor David Croisdale-Appleby. The other members of the SSC are the Children's Workforce Development Council (also for England), the General Social Care Council, the Scottish Social Services Council, the Care Council for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Social Care Council.
2. Skills for Care forms a strategic overview of workforce needs in adult social care, which accounts for nearly 1.6 million workers or 5 per cent of England's workforce, spread over 40,600 establishments employing care staff. Skills for Care members are drawn from groups representing public, private and voluntary sector care employers, along with representatives of staff, trainers, service users and informal carers. Social care includes residential care, domiciliary care and social work with all its specialisms.
3. Skills for Care and its SSC allies promote and develop the social care sector's National Occupational Standards which are statements of competence that describe 'best practice'.
4. Skills for Care regional committees are major brokers of funding for social care workforce development.