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.

Cross party talks on social care reform
Cross-party talks about overhauling care and support for the elderly and disabled in England began last week with campaigners urging politicians to consider major change.
BBC News

Skills for Care has launched a Workforce Development Strategy to help create a capable, confident and skilled adult social care workforce across England. The strategy, developed in partnership with employers, key partners and the Department of Health recognises that the 1.6 million people who work in the sector are one of the most valuable assets in social care. This workforce development strategy is intended to support workforce commissioning, planning and development to meet the new vision and priorities in adult social care.
Workforce development strategy

People deserve to have their end-of-life care wishes met
Every minute in the UK someone dies. That's over half a million people a year, but many of us are still not receiving good end-of-life care or having our dying wishes met. This can cause unnecessary pain and suffering. Across the country there are examples of excellent practice that show the positive impact of viewing end of life as more than a health issue.
The Guardian

Caring for and supporting people approaching the end of their life is amongst the most challenging work any health and social care worker faces. It can also be amongst the most rewarding - if they have the right knowledge, skills and attitude to provide the care and support they need.

Skills for Care has worked in partnership with the National End of Life Care Programme, the Department of Health and Skills for Health to develop Common Core Principles and Competences for End of Life Care. The competences provide a basis for all health and social care workers to develop their skills - whatever their level of expertise and involvement in end of life care.
End of life care

Apprenticeship Week
Apprenticeship Week 2012 takes place from 6 - 10 February. The aim of the week is to improve awareness of Apprenticeships and raise their profile.

Skills for Care will be promoting Apprenticeships in social care through a number of activities during Apprenticeship Week. These will include a series of video case studies and a dedicated Apprenticeship bulletin. More information will be available on our website - visit www.skillsforcare.org.uk/apprenticeships and click on the news and activities page.

Manager Induction Standards (MIS) change
January 2012: Please note that the MIS are being 'refreshed' and new editions are expected to be published in March 2012, including one priced book that will replace both The New Manager's Guide and The New Manager's Manager. In the short term you may wish to continue to use the 2008 MIS to give you time to update your manager induction systems, but it is strongly recommended that longer-term MIS planning and purchasing should now await the new standards.
Management induction standards

Carer awareness - free e-learning modules
Skills for Care and Skills for Health have worked in partnership with the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Director's office to develop two modules of e-learning for those working with carers. These are:

• 'Carer Awareness Module 1' which focuses on identifying carers, the challenges they face and what support you could give them
• 'Carer Awareness Module 2' which focuses in more depth on the sorts of skills and knowledge needed to support carers well. Both modules are based on The Common Core Principles for Working with Carers.

These modules are free to use and can be accessed through our Carers Matter - Everybody's Business online resource.

Apprenticeship framework certificates
Skills for Care, on behalf of Skills for Care and Development, will be issuing Apprenticeship certificates for the social care pathway at intermediate and advance level via the new ACE system from 10 February 2012.
For more information visit: Apprenticeship framework certificate.

A new way to see and use your NMDS-SC information
This summer Skills for Care will be launching a new way for users of the NMDS-SC to visualise and make use of their information.

NMDS-SC users' information will be visually presented in a new and easy to understand format with tailored interpretation, simple guidance and links to useful documents. Users will be able to explore and customise a series of dashboards showing different topics such as recruitment and retention, pay rates and worker demographics.

This is an example of how the information will be displayed:

For further information on the project, more example screenshots and the chance to have your say to help shape the dashboards please visit:
www.skillsforcare.org.uk/nmds-scdashboards.

Nominations now open for Worldskills UK 2012
Worldskills is the world's largest vocational skills competition and will be held in Leipzig in 2013. The UK heats will be running from April - July 2012 by the National Skills Academy. Winners will go through to the national finals in October 2012.

Worldskills is an opportunity for employers and training organisations to showcase the skills of staff and students of all ages and to celebrate excellence in social care.

The Skills Academy is looking for nominees from across the social care sector, so if you think you know someone who deserves a place in the competition, why not put them forward? For more information visit http://worldskillsuk.apprenticeships.org.uk/ or contact Emily.bari@nsasocialcare.co.uk.

- in your area -

Yorkshire and Humber e-learning zone
This free e-learning platform for the health and social care sector in the Yorkshire and Humber provides a range of social care courses accessible from any computer. It is funded by the Yorkshire and Humber Joint Improvement Partnership (JIP) and there are over 35,000 licenses available up until September 2012.

Current programmes include assistive technology, dementia and carer awareness.
To register an individual for e-learning:
1. Go to http://www.learningpool.com/yohrelearning/
2. Click on Create New Account
3. Create a Username and Password (and keep safe)

For a full breakdown of course content and outcomes please click on the link below:
YH e-learning zone - getting started guide.

Apprenticeship events in South East Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
Tuesday 6 March 2012
Event 1: 9.15am - 12.15pm - Event 2: 12.45pm - 3.30pm
Civic Offices in Portsmouth

The events will provide an opportunity for care providers to gain the latest information about Apprenticeships and meet with local training providers to discuss opportunities for employing an apprentice. There will be information from a number of speakers, as well as networking opportunities. For more information email Lynda Jones, Skills for Care Area Officer for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight: lynda.jones@skillsforcare.org.uk.

Calling all personal assistants and direct employers in Surrey
If you are thinking about becoming a personal assistant (PA) or if you are a direct employer thinking of recruiting a PA, you may be interested in a training programme being run by Surrey Independent Living Council for both established and new PAs. Two programmes are offered depending on experience - lasting either 3 or 5 days.

The training is mapped to the Skills for Care Common Induction Standards (www.skillsforcare.org.uk/cis) and on the 5-day course all of the activity is evidence-based. For more information please contact: kate@surreyilc.org.

For further information about how Skills for Care can support direct employers, please contact Marianne Davis, Skills for Care Area Officer for Surrey: marianne.davis@skillsforcare.org.uk.

- events -

Skills for Care annual conference 2012 - full programme now available
The value of workforce development in tough times
Thursday 8 March 2012, Hilton Manchester Deansgate

Confirmed speakers include:
Paul Burstow MP, Minister for Care Services
Sharon Allen, Skills for Care CEO
Peter Hay, President of ADASS

In tough times it is critical the people who work in adult social care have the skills, knowledge and qualifications to deliver high quality social care.

The conference will bring together a mix of keynote speakers and workshops to demonstrate 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.

To book your place and for more information visit: www.skillsforcare.org.uk/conference2012.

Free dementia workshops
Skills for Care are working in partnership with Skills for Health to offer free workshops to assist people leading and supporting the workforce who are working with people who have dementia.

The workshops are aimed at social care managers and training leads within employer organisations who want to support their teams to deliver high quality care to people with dementia.

The design of the workshops reflects best practice in workforce development - to enhance the cascade of materials by managers and training leads. The content of the workshops also utilises the good practice outlined in the Common Core Principles for supporting people with Dementia (Published in May 2011).
For further details click here.

Promoting quality through the workforce
The National Care Forum and Voluntary Organisations Disability Group in partnership with Skills for Care are holding two free events in February 2012 for frontline managers of voluntary and non-for-profit organisations.
21 February - London
23 February - Manchester

The aims of these events are to:

• provide managers with an understanding of the wider social care policy context and tools to assist them in supporting frontline staff improve the quality of service delivery
• promote an understanding of the new regulatory and monitoring framework and its implications for staff development.

For more information download the flyer below:
Promoting quality through the workforce.

- consultations -

Units for the qualification and credit framework
As part of the development of new qualifications, Skills for Care would like feedback on a sample of draft units being developed. Feedback is currently being invited on:

• Three new infection prevention and control units developed for inclusion in the health and social care diplomas - deadline Friday 3 February
• Two new sexuality and sexual health units developed for inclusion in the health and social care diplomas - deadline Friday 10 February.

For more information visit: draft units.

- tenders -

Apprenticeship tender opportunity
Skills for Care is inviting interest from social care employers or organisations working in partnership with employers (e.g. training providers, Group Training Association, Apprenticeship Training Agencies) to increase the number of Advanced Level social care Apprenticeships.

There is up to £180,000 available to support multiple projects in achieving this. For more information 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.