welcome to Skills for Care's enews

Welcome to the latest edition of our fortnightly enews. In here you will find news from Skills for Care and information you may find useful from across the sector.

at the bottom of the bulletin you will find a link to each of our regional enews containing local updates

news headlines

Skills for Care is urging social care employers and other interested stakeholders to submit evidence to the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) for their second partial review of the official shortage occupation list.

These occupations will be reviewed against the Committee's methodology of:

• Are the occupations sufficiently skilled to be included (NVQ Level 3 or above)?
• Is there a shortage of labour within these job roles?
• Is it sensible for employers to recruit to these job roles from outside of the European Economic Area?
• The occupations most relevant to the social care sector from this list are nurse and occupational therapist although the list does refer to other healthcare-related occupations.

The onus is now on the sector to demonstrate whether or not these occupations should be on the list so it is essential that any social care employers who have any evidence to submit to the MAC should do so before the deadline of 15 July 2009.

Skills for Care will be working alongside Skills for Care and Development and Skills for Health to make sure there is a strong response from the health and social care sectors.

If you have any queries you can contact the MAC directly via their email address – mac@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk.

You can also visit the Skills for Care website 

and

www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/aboutus/workingwithus/indbodies/mac/

accolades entries numbers up on last year

With nominations now closed for the 2009 Accolades Skills for Care has received a total of 130 nomination entries over 11 categories - an increase of 19 entries from 2008.

Preparation for the first stages of judging are now underway. Regional judging takes place between now and the 29 May followed by verification visits which will take place in June and July and a national judging day which will take place in September.


social work development partnership focus on practice learning

The Social Work Development Partnership between Skills for Care and the Children's Workforce Development Council has published five new titles on improving social work students' practice placements.

Sustaining Practice Learning is a series of four reports looking at what has been done to improve practice learning since the social work degree was introduced in 2003. The reports cover placements with local authorities and in the wider world of social care, and highlight what can be done to support employers in providing effective practice learning.

A further publication, Quality Assurance for Practice Learning, gives a checklist of what should be in place for every practice learning placement. It also provides a standardised method for auditing the quality of practice placements, with feedback forms for tutors, practice educators and students. It is published jointly with the General Social Care Council.

Copies of the Sustaining Practice Learning reports and Quality Assurance for Practice Learning are being sent direct to social work degree programmes and practice placement coordinators. They are also all freely downloadable from the 
social work section of the Skills for Care website.

 
social care recruitment needed to deliver long-term change

A recruitment campaign to attract people from all disciplines into social care and promote the 'really good' career paths available is needed according to HR directors, see personnel today

Skills for Care are working closely with colleagues in the Department of Health and Job Centre Plus to encourage new workers into the sector. An exciting development is the launch of the Career Pathways e-tool that will take place at a national event with Job Centre Plus in June. This will help front line Job Centre Plus workers to really understand some of the opportunities available for people wanting to work in adult social care. Skills for Care are also working on a sector routeway which will help to get people into social care with the right skills and attributes needed to do the job well.

MPs critical of end of life care

MPs say that a lack of services and poor co-ordination of health and social care meant many people are still being denied their wish to die at home.

BBC news

Minister Phil Hope says Government is spending more

Skills for Care is working with the Department of Health and Skills for Health to develop common core principles and competencies for end of life care to support the development of an integrated approach to training and education across health and social care.

The new Qualifications and Credit Framework will ensure the right units and qualifications are available for workers who work in those services.

You may want to look at the knowledge set for end of life care: Knowledge sets are sets of key learning outcomes for specific areas of work within adult social care. They are designed to improve consistency in the underpinning knowledge learnt by the adult social care workforce in England. The knowledge set includes, Support of individuals who are at the end of life, advocacy, safeguarding and roles, responsibilities and boundaries.

end of life care

first autism law closer

The first piece of legislation on autism for England moved closer to the statute books after winning government support. Community Care

Skills for Care is working in partnership with the Valuing People Team and Skills for Health to produce knowledge sets relating to supporting people who have a learning disability and/or an autistic spectrum condition.

These four new sets will add to the five existing sets. These knowledge sets will be used to inform the development of new qualifications about supporting people who have a learning disability. They will be written to suit the new Qualifications and Credit Framework.

learning disability knowledge sets 

picture cards help chat to elderly

Sets of large cards, carrying pictures of well-known scenes and objects from the 1940s, are being used to stimulate old people and those with dementia

Times

music for life backing

Broadcaster John Suchet, is backing a project which uses music to help people with dementia.

BBC news

Skills for Care are working closely with the Department of Health to ensure that the workforce is able to meet the challenges of the future in terms of providing care and support for people with dementia. The knowledge set specifically designed for people working with people with dementia have been well received by employers and care workers. The dementia knowledge set that provides guidance and learning outcomes for social care employers to develop or commission training and learning for staff.

dementia

consultation on our enews

For the past three months Skills for Care has created and circulated our enews every fortnight. The enews contains news and information from across the sector. Skills for Care's marketing team are now conducting a review of the enews, with the aim of finding out if the layout and content are suitable and how widely it is circulated.

We would be grateful if you could spare some time to give us some feedback by completing a quick and simple questionnaire via the link below. All responses will be treated in confidence and any reports published using this information will be based on aggregated data only. All responses are anonymous.

Feedback will be reviewed to make improvements to the enews where possible.

Many thanks for your interest and cooperation.  


enews survey



to view our regional updates please click on the links below:

to amend your contact details, be added to our distribution list or to provide us with your feedback please email marketing@skillsforcare.org.uk 
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.