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Supporting someone who may be approaching the end of their life can be some of the most challenging work that any social care worker faces.

Your workforce needs the right skills and knowledge to do their job competently and confidently. Managers also need to make sure that their service has enough trained staff to meet the needs and wishes of the people they support.

Our resources will support adult social care staff, and their managers, to develop their skills and knowledge in end of life care.

Dying Matters Awareness Week 8 - 14 May 2023

This annual awareness week aims to open up discussion about death, dying and grief.

Find out more about Dying Matters Awareness Week


Dying Matters Awareness Week webinar


Skills for Care has produced a webinar and acompanying resource sheet with information about caring someone at the end of their life, support for care staff dealing with loss, and conversations with experts on what Dying Matters means to them.
 

Duration 35 minutes

 

 

The Universal Principles for Advance Care Planning 

The universal principle for advance care planning guide was developed through wide consultation with individuals, families and organisations and professionals to support end-of-life care. It is a resource for everyone: to help individuals and families to know what they should expect from end-of-life care and to help professionals and organisations to deliver best practice support. 

 

PDF - 944 KB
This easy read guide covers advanced care planning for individuals, their families, professionals and organisations.

 

Essential skills and knowledge

If new staff will be working with people who are their end of life, the following should form part of their induction.

PDF - 11 mb

Outlining the principles of high quality end of life care. It’s aimed at non-specialist workers and describes the competencies, knowledge and values they should have.

PDF - 471 KB

Designed to ensure workers have the skills and knowledge needed to provide a good service for people at their end of life and identify any gaps.

PDF -  151 KB

Tailoring the care certificate for those supporting people at the end of life. This document includes the end of life care contextualised standards

 

Training Resources

This training resource is based on the story of Josh Cawley, who was 22 when he died from the catastrophic injuries that his birth parents inflicted on him, which resulted in his inability to speak or to move from his wheelchair. Skills for Care worked with Royal College of Nursing and Hospice UK to develop two training resources, a film and a handbook, based on Josh’s story.

Adult social care staff can work through Josh’s journey and consider it in light of their own roles and responsibilities, to think about how they can improve their own end of life care practice. 

Download the free training resources. 

This training pack increases awareness and understanding of how everyone can work together to improve end of life care.

It includes a film and booklet to help people to understand all the different job roles that may be involved in someone’s end of life care and how they can work well together.

Use the pack as part of a learning and development session or to prompt and facilitate discussion in team meetings.

The pack includes:

There’s also a booklet and videos about the different roles that might be involved in providing end of life care for someone.

Different role videos:

   

 

The pack was developed with employers through a research project that aimed to find out what mattered most to people at their end of life. You can read a summary of this work, and the evaluation report evaluation report.

 

The training resource was developed in partnership with Bridgesfm for employers and/or managers of domiciliary care workers. Explore the resources:

e-ELCA is a free e-learning programme which offers around 150 modules covering all aspects of end of life care. Skills for Care has been involved in the development of two pathways to develop knowledge around end of life care.

Skills for Care learning path: Care workers supporting a person near the end of life


Skills for Care learning path: Nurses working in care homes

There’s also a training needs analysis to identify what learning and development you and your workforce need. If you’re a social care professional in England, you can access the e-learning by asking your employer to register with Skills for Care’s National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC).

 

 


 

Guide to developing your staff

Our 'Guide to developing your staff' can help you select the right learning for your staff and service. Our endorsed providers deliver high quality learning and development to the social care sector. Search for endorsed providers in our online directory.

Workforce Development Fund

Adult social care employers can claim back a contribution towards the cost of qualifications and learning programmes through our Workforce Development Fund (WDF).