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.
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news headlines
Skills for Care and Skills for Health set baseline for health and social care staff working with dying
Skills for Care and Skills for Health today defined a "baseline" set of skills for all staff working with people approaching the end of their lives.
The two sector skills councils have laid out a series of core competences and principles, designed to achieve a "cultural shift in attitudes and behaviour related to end of life care" in the workplace.
They are designed to apply to all staff across care homes, hospitals and other settings, not just specialists in end of life or palliative care, and supplement current occupation-specific training standards.
Community Care article
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.
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.
End of life care - Skills for Care website
End of life care - NHS website
squaring the funding circle
We need a national social care service, says Peter Beresford.
There is a broad consensus, which includes the government, that the present system of social care funding is untenable. Yet with the publication of the green paper expected next week, there is little agreement or clarity about how social care should be funded for the future, with minimal evidence-based discussion about what will actually work. Instead, the preoccupation remains with satisfying short-term political and economic considerations.
The irony is that social care is emerging in importance as the new NHS. What the evidence highlights is that needs are increasingly likely to come its way, rather than that of traditional healthcare. The debate about rising social care need has tended to be framed in narrow and unhelpful terms of the "demographic timebomb". But many other factors are increasing the numbers of people with support needs particularly associated with improvements in medical and health care as well as changes in attitudes and lifestyles.
Society Guardian article
rapid response
The government's long-awaited social care plans are likely to back telecare. So why isn't it being taken up more widely?
The Lindseys are among the growing number of users of social care services who are satisfied customers of telecare - the use of IT to monitor vulnerable people in their own homes. The care and support green paper, expected next week, is likely to say that these systems offer an important part of the solution to how we will be able to look after our ageing population.
Great claims have been made about telecare. Until now, however, it has lacked a solid evidence base and premature talking-up of its potential has bred cynicism. What has earned it its place in the green paper is an increasingly convincing series of reports from local authorities that have invested in systems and, crucially, an independent evaluation by health economists at York University.
Guardian article
councils' 'excellent' care ratings questioned
Councils with care services rated as 'excellent' still fail to provide care to vulnerable residents who are incapable of getting out of bed, washing, or using the toilet by themselves, a charity has claimed.
Age Concern and Help the Aged said fresh analysis showed almost two-thirds of councils with the three-star rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) did not offer any care at all to older people who could not carry out basic daily tasks.
LGC Plus article
'The Challenges Ahead' interview with Baroness Barbara Young, CQC chair
I think the golden thread running right through everything we do is going to be the belief that our approach has got to be based on basic human rights, equality and dignity. Now that is particularly true for people who get marginalised due to their circumstances; like elderly people, those with dementia, learning difficulties and a whole variety of others. So we really want to take a rights based approach to our work but, apart from that, we want to look at some specific issues that are important for people particularly the elderly. Along with the study into care homes we are carrying out, we are also looking at the stroke care pathway and we will be working with the DH to look at ways in which we can help with the implementation of the dementia strategy. We want a strategy taken forward that puts people right at the centre of dementia care and in the future we may look at the dementia care pathway.
Govnet article
health and social care watchdog seeks feedback
The new health and social care watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has launched a consultation on the registration standards it plans to enforce from April next year.
It said its system to meet the 29 registration requirements set by the government would fundamentally change the way services were regulated and how regulation would be used to drive improvement in services.
Now it is asking for feedback on whether the guidance appropriately reflects the requirements and if it matches what should rightly be expected of a safe, quality health or adult social care service.
LGC Plus article
regulator consults on registration guidance
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has launched a consultation on guidance outlining what health and adult social care services will need to do to meet new legally enforceable registration standards.
From April 2010, the regulator will begin to put in place the first ever registration system covering all health and adult social care services in England, whether they are public or independent.
The registration requirements set essential common quality standards across the care sector and will replace the current standards in place for health and adult social care services.
The CQC is asking for feedback on whether the guidance appropriately reflects the registration requirements and if it reflects what should rightly be expected of a safe, quality health or adult social care service.
Registration will be phased-in from 2010 and the National Minimum Standards will be in force until services are required to register. Both the registration requirements and the underpinning guidance will be legally enforceable.
Consultation on the Guidance for Registration closes on 24 August. For all the consultation documents, visit the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk or call the customer service centre on 03000 61 61 61.
Care Info article
let's get rid of social work's blame culture
Social workers should be able to complain without being sacked, and be allowed make practice mistakes in a supportive learning environment, says Liz Davies.
Guardian article
adult social care green paper due out in July
The long-awaited green paper on adult social care fundingwill be published next month, health secretary Andy Burnham confirmed yesterday in Parliament.
'Radical'
He [Care services minister Phil Hope] said that it would be "radical" and would "spell out what we will do in future to ensure that people get high-quality care, and that they have choice and control over that care".
Hope added: "We will make sure that the system is fair, transparent, simple and affordable for all."
Adult care workforce development body Skills for Care welcomed the announcement and said the government would conduct a 16-week consultation on the green paper - longer than the traditional three-month period.
Community Care article
Skills for Care welcomes the announcement by the Secretary of State that the Green Paper will be launched next month and Skills for Care has been one of a small group of key adult social care stakeholders who met with Care Service Minister Phil Hope to discuss our views on the direction the Green Paper needs to take.
Skills for Care encourages all stakeholders to contribute to the Department of Health's Green Paper consultation when it gets underway.
8th IAHSA International Conference 'Leadership beyond Borders'
With only a few weeks to go before the conference of the International Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing (IAHSA) takes place at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London on 20-22 July 2009, I am writing to ask for your support to promote this unique event for the UK. The conference has a great deal to offer to any UK social care practitioner involved in or interested in services for older people. With delegate and speakers from all parts of the world it promises an unparalleled educational and networking experience that should be of great professional interest to CEOs, directors and managers from organisations throughout the care sector.
The NCF has been involved in supporting this event since IAHSA decided to bring the 8th International Conference to London and we are keen to encourage a substantial turnout of colleagues from the UK who will not only make our international guests feel thoroughly welcome to London, but who will also benefit greatly from the programme that is on offer. A statement by Andrew Larpent NCF Chairman can be found here
adult care: data barriers hamper council workforce planning
Data collection barriers are hampering councils' efforts to ensure adult social care workforce plans are in line with their strategies to develop services, according to a report this week.
The research,by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and Skills for Care, examined how far councils in England had got in developing so-called integrated local area workforce strategies (InLAWS), which the two bodies are seeking to promote.
These are designed to ensure workforce planning takes account of all adult care staff locally, not just those in councils, andis based on councils' strategies to transform services in line with personalisation and demographic changes.
Community Care article
The Integrated Local Area Workforce Strategy (InLAWS) project is a cutting edge joint initiative between Skills for Care and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS). The project aims to develop effective ways to support Directors of Adult Social Services (DASS) with workforce commissioning across their local area. The vision is to have the right workforce doing the right things at an achievable cost. This will involve bringing service commissioning, financial and workforce strategies into balance.
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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.
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