We work with care organisations, people who need care and support and carers, and other partners to make sure our activities reflect their needs.
Whether you are part of a large care provider, a new business expanding into social care or a person who directly employs a personal assistant, there are many opportunities where you can contribute to our on-going work.
You can get involved by taking part in research, responding to consultations, providing case study examples, commenting on draft products, co-producing new policies or agreeing to be a study site.
All our consultations and research projects are promoted in our fortnightly enewsletter. Sign up to our mailing list so you don’t miss out on new opportunities.
The role of social care in prevention - ends 18 January 2019
‘Preventive approaches’ are about how we can prevent health problems arising in the first place, and support people to be more proactive in maintaining their health, independence, wellbeing and quality of life for longer. This is a big part of the NHS Five Year Forward View. The Care Act 2014 states that a local authority must provide (or arrange for) services which prevent or delay the need for care and support – they can do this by working with partners in health and social care, welfare, housing and employment services.
Skills for Care is looking at the role of social care in the prevention agenda, as part of their work for the Department of Health and Social Care. We’re also working with two local authorities, Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council to think about prevention at a local level.
We’ve asked research company, Wavehill Ltd., to do a rapid review of the evidence and a mapping study of practice to help with our thinking. The research is focused on these four areas (you can read more about them here).
- The role of social care staff in prevention and promoting wellbeing
- The impact of engaging in this agenda on social care staff and employers
- The effectiveness of prevention and promotion in social care
- The process of embedding preventative approaches in practice
We’d like to see any research publications which cover some or all of these areas. We’re also keen to find any examples of good practice in England which could be shared across the sector.
If you’d like to contribute research and/or examples to this study please contact:
The deadline is Friday 18 January 2019.
Come to our free event
Tuesday 22 January 2019 - Birmingham
Book your place here
If you’re interested or involved in work around prevention and wellbeing in adult social care, come along to our free event. We’ll share findings from national research and you’ll have the chance to network and learn about what others are doing locally, and where you could get involved. We’ll also explain how you can apply for a small grant opportunity to test different ways of working around this agenda.
Review of the 'Learning Disabilities Core Skills Education and Training Framework'
Skills for Care is supporting Skills for Health, Health Education England and NHS England to review and refresh the 'Learning Disabilities Core Skills Education and Training Framework' (which was written in 2015-16).
The refresh will take into account the findings from the 'Learning Disabilities Mortality Review', which found that there are some health problems that people with a learning disability might get more than other people, or that health services aren’t good at finding and treating. The framework will ensure staff have the skills and knowledge to do something about this.
We want lots of people to tell us what they think about the framework, including people who use services, work in services, run services and/or train people.
If you’d like to get involved in the consultation process in early 2019, please register your interest here. We’ll ask you to look at ideas of the framework online and send us your thoughts.
The role of learning and development for family carers in transitions - ends 01 February 2019
We want to explore the role of learning and development for family carers of children and young people with a learning disability and/or autism, and the impact it has on their transition to adult support services.
Skills for Care receives regular feedback that if families caring for a child or young person with a learning disability and/or autism had access to tailored learning and development, they’d feel better equipped to support them as they move from children’s to adult services.
We’ve commissioned Research Partners, an independent research consultancy, to do a rapid evidence review to investigate what evidence, if any, exists to support this idea. We want to find out more about what works and what doesn't in supporting families and unpaid carers of children and young people with learning disabilities and/or autism.
The review will focus on:
- what knowledge and skills family and unpaid carers need
- what impact learning and development for family and unpaid carers has on them and the children and/or young people they support.
If you have or know of any research publications which cover some, or all, of these areas, please send them to the details below.
Research Partners will also conduct a mapping study of learning and development opportunities for family and unpaid carers of children and young people with learning disabilities and/or autism. If you know any examples of current initiatives or opportunities, please send them to the details below.
Please contact:
Claire Tyers (Research Partners) at claire@research-partners.co.uk and Liz Burtney, (Skills for Care) at liz.burtney@skillsforcare.org.uk.
The deadline is Friday 01 February 2019.
Focus group: What do staff need to know to support people with autism
We're working with Skills for Health, the National Autistic Society and Opening Minds Training and Consultancy Ltd. to develop a ‘core capabilities framework’ about autism. This framework will say what staff need to know and do, so that they have the right skills and knowledge to support autistic people properly.
It'll replace the current ‘Autism skills and knowledge list’. The new framework will have more detail – it'll be for autistic people of all ages and include health, social care and public services (such as education, housing and policing). This will help us to think about how everyone who works in public services can enable autistic people to live rewarding and fulfilling lives.
To help us do this we want to talk to autistic people, families, and staff who support them. We're running five co-production sessions in January 2019.
Who should attend?
- The morning session (10.00-12.30) is for paid staff who support autistic people. These could be people who work in social care, health or any other public services who want to make their service more useful to autistic people.
- The afternoon session (13.15-15.45) is for people with lived experience of autism. This means autistic people and family and friends of people with autism.
Dates
- 14 January - Bristol
- 21 January - Sheffield
- 23 January - London
- 28 January - Sale
- 29 January - Birmingham
Find out more and book your place here.
The consultation on the adult social care workforce (Facing the Facts, Shaping the Future) run by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and supported by Skills for Care has now ended. Thank you for taking part. The consultation sought views and evidence on actions that could be taken to address challenges relating to recruitment, retention, workforce development, regulation and workforce planning in adult social care. In total, over 550 individuals and organisations were involved in the consultation process through both online feedback and workshops.
The findings of the consultation are being used to inform the forthcoming health and care workforce strategy and Green Paper on care and support for older people and will be published alongside them. This is now expected later this year although exact timing has not been confirmed.