Skills for Care issues staff training guide for personal budget users

Skills for Care has launched a guide to help people receiving direct payments or personal budgets train their personal care staff.

The move follows concerns from the National Centre for Independent Living that personal assistants, who support direct payment users, were currently poorly paid and had little access to training. Skills for Care predicts the number of personal assistants could increase ninefold over the next two decades due to the roll-out of personal budgets.

The training code advises people employing their own personal assistant on drawing up training plans,  helping them gain relevant qualifications and ensuring they have the relevant skills for the job. These may include moving and handling, disability awareness, personal care, health and safety, infection control and administering medicines.

Many personal assistants do not have a recognised qualification, such as the Health and Social Care NVQ.

Three further training codes have also been published to advise care workers themselves, and purchasers and providers of training.

Skills for Care chief executive officer Andrea Rowe said  “These codes are straightforward, user-friendly tools aimed at making sure that everyone who is putting together training packages or commissioning training is considering the key questions.”

Related articles

Expert guide to direct payments, personal budgets and individual budgets
Reforms could leave vulnerable adults in danger, CSCI chief says
Expert guide to the social care workforce