Programme launched to prepare care workforce to deliver Care Act 2014

A programme has been launched to ensure the adult social care workforce is ready to deliver on the changes in the Care Bill, which will come into force from April 2015.

The Department of Health-commissioned work will seek to identify the training needs of managers at all levels, social workers, other professionals and care staff in all sectors and whether changes need to be made to qualifications or workforce standards.

Skills for Care, in partnership with the the National Skills Academy for Social Care and The College of Social Work, has been appointed to lead the programme. Staff will receive training under the programme from October 2014-April 2015.

Before that Skills for Care will produce a range of free learning resources setting out skills requirements of people in a range of roles. It will also hold a number of “train the trainer” workshops, from July to October, to get trainers ready to deliver the learning and development programme from October onwards.

Yesterday, Skills for Care launched a consultation to help develop the learning and development framework, to identify which job roles will be affected by the Care Bill and what skills and knowledge staff will need to have to deliver on it.

This includes an online survey and resources for sector organisations to set up their own focus groups to feed into the consultation.