03/07/06 - £3m DH grant to shape the future of social care
Skills for Care has received £3m from the Department of Health to launch phase two of a programme to shape the future social care workforce. The New Types of Worker programme is currently identifying how roles need to adapt to deliver the health and social care reforms outlined in the White Paper, “Our Health, Our Care, Our Say.”
CEO Andrea Rowe said: “The programme has already provided some fascinating insights into the way social care roles need to change to provide more person-centred care. We will now establish what skills, competences and qualifications people who work in these roles need to acquire in order to deliver the White Paper, and what barriers need to be addressed for them to make that journey.”
The New Types of Worker programme launched in March 2003 and was highlighted in the 2005 Green Paper, 'Independence, Well-being and Choice' as an important source of evidence of the positive ways employers were responding to new challenges. The programme has so far identified the ways roles in social care are evolving in response to the needs of people who use social care services.
Vic Citarella, chair of Skills for Care's New Types of Worker Task and Finish Group, said: “Phase one of the programme found that, in the past, many people have been frustrated by disjointed service provision, lack of equality in pay and conditions and inflexible support systems between health and social care services. These are the things the sector needs to address in identifying how roles need to develop through phase two.”
Skills for Care will now identify the impact of the findings on the development of the workforce in the short, medium and long-term. The programme will assess whether the current National Occupational Standards and qualifications will meet the needs of the future workforce. From this, Skills for Care will clearly set out the necessary standards of skills and qualifications to enable workers to develop their roles to meet the changing needs of the sector. This programme will link across to workforce reforms in the NHS and in relation to children's services.
The programme involves statutory, voluntary and private sector organisations, and consults with people who use services to establish how roles can be shaped to support their care requirements better. The pilot studies have included older people's services, mental health services, children's services, learning disability services and sensory impairment services.
Two short guides to the programme are available to download free of charge from www.skillsforcare.org.uk. Both guides provide a useful overview of the project so far. One version of the document is aimed at social care policy makers; the other provides a brief update in everyday language for anyone who wants a short summary of phase one.
Source : DOH
