Review pinpoints missing staff skills

Options for Excellence, the government’s social care workforce review, has identified key gaps in commissioning, leadership and management skills, and the process for inducting new staff.

The report, which has been written with the aim of influencing next year’s comprehensive spending review, is due shortly, but will not be published and will instead just be circulated to ministers.

Commissioning skills are seen as important because of the increasing need for councils to support service users to commission their own care, under government plans to expand direct payments and roll out individual budgets.

The review is also looking at the impact of training on service quality, Rowe added.