welcome to skills for care's enews

The enews includes news from Skills for Care and information you may find useful from across the sector.

Apprenticeships rise by a half, data shows
The number of people starting apprenticeships in England this year has risen by more than 50% on last year, official figures show.

There were 442,700 apprenticeship starts in the academic year 2010-11 compared with 279,000 the previous year. Of these 175,000 were aged over 25, 138,900 aged 19 to 24 and 128,300 aged under 19.

A recent BBC survey suggested more young people were considering an apprenticeship as an alternative to university.
BBC News

Skills for Care encourages every social care employer to invest in apprenticeships for new and existing staff of all ages to help with their recruitment and retention needs.

An apprenticeship is a combination of on and off the job training and learning. They are designed by employers for employers to reflect the changing needs of the sector.

Skills for Care designs the framework for those working in social care and the Skills Funding Agency supports the training with funding. Apprenticeships have the scope for any specialist employer requirements to be included.

For more information visit www.skillsforcare.org.uk/apprenticeships.

Look out for dementia warning signs, families urged
Families are being urged to look out for the warning signs of dementia when they visit their elderly relatives. It is part of a government advertising campaign in England aimed at encouraging early diagnosis.
Experts believe the festive period is a time when many people realise family members may have a memory problem.
BBC News

As the number of people with dementia increases it is important that the adult social care workforce has the skills needed to meet their needs.

Skills for Care, in partnership with the Department of Health and Skills for Health, has developed Common Core Principles for Supporting People with Dementia. The principles will help to develop a workforce that responds confidently to the person with dementia, understanding how to enter their world and support the life they are leading. They have been mapped to generic national occupational standards and agreed units of learning within the Qualifications and Credit Framework. Employers are encouraged to use these resources as a foundation for their development plans for specific local settings.

For more information on the dementia specific qualifications please click on the following link: dementia qualifications.

Self Care Week 2011
Self Care Week 2011 will take place from 14-20 November 2011. This is an opportunity for social care organisations to raise awareness of what's available locally to help people take care of themselves.

Now is a great time to prepare for the week by checking out Skills for Care's resources around self care (produced jointly with Skills for Health). In addition to the shared Common Core Principles to Support Self Care, there is a whole Self Care Training Manual aimed at domiciliary workers to help them understand self care. We have also produced a questionnaire that can be used to help identify the most important ways that workers can help an individual to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing and be as independent as possible.

To access all these great resources and to find out more about Self Care Week 2011, please visit: www.skillsforcare.org.uk/selfcare.

Employer Transition Fund
The Employer Transition Fund is to support the transition from Newly Qualified Social Worker (NQSW) programmes to the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) by developing effective partnerships. Funding is split into core funding and development funding. The core funding can be used flexibly to create, sustain or develop a partnership which should support NQSWs through the current framework and proposed ASYE, and share information and learning. The development funding will provide up front resources to develop supervisors, assessors and practice educators in preparation for the implementation of the ASYE in September 2012.

For further information and to download the application pack please visit: .

- in your area -

Dementia training in the North West
'The House of Memories' is a museum reminiscence training programme developed and delivered by National Museums Liverpool, supported by the Department of Health.

The programme will be delivered January - March 2012 and is centred on the objects, archives and life stories held within National Museums Liverpool. It aims to provide social care staff with new skills and resources to share with people living with dementia that will positively contribute to their wellbeing and quality of life, and offer potential alternatives to medication.

Participants will be encouraged to:

• understand how information about a person's family history can be used to support them to live well with dementia
• involve carers and extended family to support individuals living with dementia, through shared creative activity
• measure individual achievement aligned to the new dementia qualifications on the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF).

For more information and to book your place visit www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/houseofmemories.

Skills for Care has also developed units and qualifications in partnership with The Alzheimer's Society and other sector experts to reflect current best practice in this area.

There is an option to take a specialist dementia pathway through the Health and Social Care (HSC) Diplomas at level 2 and 3, allowing learners' to tailor their learning to their job role, as well as a number of specific dementia qualifications at level 2 and 3 for continuing professional development (CPD). These qualifications aim to enhance practice around the care and support of people with dementia and meeting the needs of the people with dementia. For more information visit: dementia qualifications.

Personal Assistants (PA) - Developing the Workforce in London
Skills for Care in London and the South East are undertaking a project on behalf of the London Joint Improvement Partnership: www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/JIP.

The project seeks to provide greater clarity on the PA workforce through a range of activities, including a review of the level and type of business remodelling underway to supply and develop PAs and an assessment of the feasibility of a PA accreditation system.

Local stakeholders are invited to participate in locality-based workshops to share findings, identify further opportunities and challenges, and to contribute to shaping future PA frameworks in London. For information about your nearest event visit the London and South East section of the Skills for Care website.

For more information about the project activities and objectives please contact Lynda Jones: lynda.jones@skillsforcare.org.uk

Skills for Care is leading on the implementation of the national Personal Assistant Framework. To find out more about the work and how you can get involved please visit: personal assistants framework.

Leadership and management business skills training - York and North Yorkshire
The Care Alliance for Workforce Development (CAWD) is offering a bursary to support social care employers in York and North Yorkshire to access a leadership and management business skills development opportunity from a choice of two training providers.

For course availability and information, please see: Business Skills Training.
For information about the CAWD bursary please email gemma.dickinson@northyorks.gov.uk

- events -

Save the date!
Skills for Care annual conference 2012
The value of workforce development in tough times
Thursday 8 March 2012, Hilton Manchester Deansgate.

In tough times it is critical that the 1.56 million people who work in adult social care have the skills, knowledge and qualifications to deliver high quality social care. Continuing to invest in the development of a well trained and flexible workforce is essential for every social care provider to not only survive but thrive.

The conference will bring together a mix of keynote speakers and workshops to give delegates the bigger picture of what is going on in our sector and how to tackle the new ways of working that impact on the day to day job of providing adult social care.

More information will be available in the next few weeks.

There are a number of sponsorship and exhibition opportunities available to suit a range of budgets to promote your organisation to the adult social care sector. For more information contact angela.grant@skillsforcare.org.uk.

- consultations -

End of life qualification development
Following feedback from the sector we have embarked upon a project to strengthen the range of End of Life units and qualifications available to the social care sector. We have worked with a reference group of sector experts and have produced a draft proposal for qualifications along with six proposed new units.

To view the units and provide feedback click on the link below: draft units for feedback.

Feedback on draft revisions of National Occupational Standards (NOS)
Health and Social Care NOS are the authoritative National Occupational Standards for people who work in health and social care settings with adults and/or children across the UK.

Revisions are being made to the NOS in the light of feedback from surveys and events held in May and June this year. The review is the joint work of Skills for Care and Development (a partnership of Skills for Care, Children's Workforce Development Council, General Social Care Council, Care Council for Wales, Northern Ireland Social Care Council, and Scottish Social Services Council).

We now want to check that the revisions are on track by inviting feedback on a sample of the revised NOS. For more information visit www.skillsforcare.org.uk/consultations.

Call for evidence - Innovative practice in delivering personalised care
The National Market Development Forum (NMDF), part of the Think Local, Act Personal (TLAP) Partnership, has established three task and finish groups focused on key areas of work.

One of these is looking at good practice in developing personalised services and supporting innovation in new models of care and support. The group is chaired by Sharon Allen, CEO of Skills for Care and includes directors of adult services, commissioners, provider chief executives and provider associations.

The group is initiating a call for evidence to gather examples of innovative practice in delivering fully personalised care and support. In particular they are looking for examples of:

• Personalisation in residential and nursing homes
• Personalisation in specialist services, including dementia and autism
• Personalised services for carers, and
• Personalisation in domiciliary care services
• Personalisation in end of life care

For more information and to submit your innovative practice visit:
Call for evidence - Innovative practice in delivering personalised care.

- tenders -

Apprenticeships tender opportunity
Skills for Care is looking for projects to promote one or more of the following:

• Intermediate level Apprenticeships
• Advanced level Apprenticeships
• Targeted work at providing support for organisations wishing to employ/host apprentices
• Work with consortia and partnerships to create effective solutions to local skills gaps and shortages and challenges in the uptake of apprenticeships
• Recruit 16-18 year olds
• Apprenticeship programmes for employers new to apprenticeships
• Innovative models to improve completion and progression rates of apprenticeships
• Funding will be available to support large employers (employing over 250 staff), employers of less than 250 staff and local authorities.

For more information and to request the tender documents visit: .

Skills for Care works to ensure the adult social care sector has a modern, flexible and highly skilled workforce to deliver quality care. We are committed to working with employers and other key stakeholders to ensure we are supporting their needs and those of people who use services and carers.