Skills for Care warns “clock is ticking” on social care recruitment

The latest report from Skills for Care highlights ongoing social care recruitment and retention challenges, with any workforce improvements driven by international recruitment. The State of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England report reveals that the adult social care workforce grew, and vacancies fell, for the second successive year during 2023-24....

Government pledges fair pay agreement for care professionals

The Care Minister has reiterated a government pledge to establish a fair pay agreement for care professionals as he reached out to services regarding “operational resilience” this winter. The Minister of State for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Stephen Kinnock, wrote a letter this week to local authorities and adult social...

New whitepaper outlines ‘first steps to fixing social care’

A new social care whitepaper has been published which sets out the “blueprint” for addressing the “severe challenges” faced by the sector. Released yesterday (17th September 2024), the whitepaper has been published by homecare technology specialist Birdie and includes insights from social care leaders and experts from across the sector. Entitled ‘Ready to Care:...

New Workforce Strategy for adult social care a ‘call to action’

The new national Workforce Strategy for adult social care in England has been described as a “call to action” which provides a “long-term vision” for the sector. The sector-led Workforce Strategy has been developed by Skills for Care in collaboration with other social care bodies and stakeholders, including the Care Quality Commission (CQC), care...

Skills for Care are celebrating social care in April

Throughout April, Skills for Care will be Celebrating Social Care as part of an annual campaign. Since 2022, the workforce development charity has used the month of April to celebrate the adult social care workforce “a little bit louder” and highlight the “vital impact” they have on people using care services. Skills for Care...

Children in care could reunite with their families with more support

New research from the NSPCC and Action for Children reveals that more children in care could be reunited with their families if there was better support available. The survey of local authorities in England found that 78% of the 75 who responded want to provide more support to help children in care return to...

Skills for Care offer guide to new Social Care Certificate qualification

Skills for Care have published a new webpage, specification and FAQ guide to the new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification. The new Social Care Certificate qualification, which is due to launch in June of this year, is based on the existing Care Certificate standards. The specification for it has been developed by...

Skills for Care’s learning campaign returns for 2024

Skills for Care’s successful learning campaign is returning for 2024 to inspire social care workers to ‘Keep learning for success.’ The campaign first ran in January – March 2023 to highlight how ongoing learning and development is “absolutely vital” for social care staff at all levels, and is being repeated this January and February....

Stress linked to third of social care sick days

New research has found that just under a third of sickness absences among social care workers are linked to stress and poor wellbeing. Data collated by the British Psychological Society (BPS) reveals that 30% of the 500,021 sick days taken by social workers were due to mental health issues such as stress and work-related...

New guiding principles for delegated healthcare tasks

Skills for Care has published new guiding principles and supporting resources for the completion of delegated healthcare tasks. The workforce development charity for adult social care has worked with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and other partners to co-develop the voluntary guiding principles. The principles, which will support person-centred, safe and...