National Skills Academy for Social Care launches today

The National Skills Academy for Social Care is being formally launched today with a remit to improve the skills, management, quantity and status of England’s 1.5 million-strong adult social care workforce.

The academy, backed by £6m in public funding over the next three years, will provide and accredit training programmes, with a particular focus on supporting small and medium-sized providers with limited training budgets.

It will also offer support to service users employing personal assistants, the number of whom is tipped to rise significantly over the next 15 years as personalisation develops.

Workforce to reach 2.5m by 2020

With the size of the overall workforce expected to reach 2.5 million by 2020, as service demand increases, the academy will also seek to boost recruitment by targeting former family carers, young people, the unemployed and men. It will focus particularly on developing leadership and management skills.

Its director, Liz McSheehy, said: “The skills academy will place employers, and the people who use services, in the driving seat in every aspect of the leadership, management and commissioning programmes we develop, to ensure businesses are better informed, employees are better trained, and people get better care.”

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