Institute will be key to promoting care

The new Social Care Institute for Excellence
will help social care staff have the confidence to promote the
social care model in new working arrangements, a Department of
Health official told delegates.

Amanda Edwards, head of quality strategy for
social care, said that Scie had a role in “preparing people for
working in new ways”.

“To promote the social care model in new
situations we have to have a bit of background,” she said. “We need
to know why we are doing what we are doing. Using Scie to develop
confidence is very important.”

Part of Scie’s dissemination role will be to
work with the General Social Care Council, the National Care
Standards Commission, the Social Services Inspectorate, and others
to make sure that findings were actually being drawn on and used by
educators and trainees, she added.

Scie’s chief executive designate and out-going
director of services for Wiltshire Ray Jones said Scie represented
a real opportunity for change but asked delegates to have realistic
expectations of what it could achieve in the short term.

“What I’m recognising is that Scie is going to
be working with all of you in different ways in a world that is
messy,” he said.

Scie chairperson Jane Campbell added that the
organisation’s goal to involve all partners in the development and
dissemination of knowledge must extend to the independent
sector.