Skills for Care chief to retire next year

The chief executive of Skills for Care, Andrea Rowe, is to retire next year after 10 years of leading the skills council and its predecessor body, Topss England.

David Croisdale-Appleby, the organisation’s chair, praised Rowe for making Skills for Care an “effective expert voice for 35,000 social care employers across our sector”.

Rowe said she was “looking forward to taking on new projects” but wanted to allow enough time for her colleagues to find a successor.

“I made my announcement to allow the Skills for Care board time to find a suitable replacement to lead a company that I believe is uniquely placed to meet the huge challenges of delivering the recently published workforce development strategy Working to Put People First through a skilled and flexible social care workforce,” she said.

The skills council, which develops England’s adult social care workforce through supporting employers, is facing changes to its future role with a review announced by the Department of Health in September 2008.

Consultants are examining the cost-effectiveness of Skills for Care, professional regulator the General Social Care Council, and the Social Care Institute for Excellence, which shares best practice across children’s and adults’ social care. Publication of the review was delayed until after the final report of the Social Work Task Force, due early next month.

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