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A service to develop the skills and qualifications of 36,000 staff at social care voluntary organisations in Scotland has been launched.

The Voluntary Sector Social Services Workforce Unit will provide support and advice on workforce planning, training, recruitment and retention. It will liaise with employers, engage with policymakers and promote best practice.

The unit, which the Scottish executive is funding to the tune of £650,000 over three years, is a collaboration between Community Care Providers Scotland and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).

Janet Miller, unit director and former learning and development adviser at the SSSC, hopes to raise the sector's status.

She says: "We want to emphasise that the voluntary sector - which accounts for one-third of the social care workforce - wants to be seen as true partners in delivering services. We want to get more funding which can be put into improving salaries and training."

The unit employs three people and will focus initially on developing the skills of front-line care workers and the capacity of small and medium-sized social care voluntary groups.

Miller says: "There is a shortage of front-line care workers in all sorts of settings but they are under-qualified. More training would help them improve their practice and learning.

"It's not that small organisations haven't had a voice, but the big ones shout loudest. Smaller employers provide half of voluntary sector services but their funding is often insecure and they don't always know what's out there in terms of support."

The unit also aims to disseminate best practice information on training and help employers navigate the maze of regulations on qualification targets. It will explain in "easily understandable language" to workers and employers the minimum standards they need to register with the SSSC.

Staff recruitment and retention and making the sector a more attractive career option for men - about 90 per cent of the workforce is women - will also be challenges, says Miller.


"We have to sell our strengths. It is difficult to attract people in the first place and, although the pay isn't always the best, it is a creative, exciting and flexible place to work," she says.

With councils committed to developing closer partnerships with the voluntary and private sectors in delivering services, Miller hopes they will take the same broad approach when developing the skills of the whole workforce.

• More information on the Voluntary Sector Social Services Workforce Unit at www. ccpscotland.org/workforceunit/

What are the unit's main challenges?
Gordon MacRae, campaigns and quality officer at disability charity Leonard Cheshire Scotland, hopes the Voluntary Sector Social Services Workforce Unit will usher in consistency and stability.

He says: "The sector needs to have a greater input into the development of proper qualifications and ensure they incorporate all the necessary skills and have the support of the inspectorates."

He adds that employees continually needed to reskill because there were continual changes in qualification requirements and basic standards. "We were told five years ago that higher national certificates were the basic standard but that changed to the Scottish vocational qualification, which meant our training had to change."

He says the unit needed to provide a "collective and strong voice" on the value of voluntary sector careers and help build sector skills.