Care Support Independence

The Government has published its social care workforce strategy.

Working to Put People First: The Strategy for the Adult Social Care Workforce in England provides a framework to support the transformation of the adult social care workforce.

This framework will enable the implementation of 2008 publication Putting People First, which set out to improve care and support services in England in the short and medium term. Long-term change will be addressed in the care and support Green Paper, due for publication in June.

The strategy is the result of collaboration between the Department of Health and its key partners in the adult social care sector. It aims to lure experienced graduates, managers and leaders from the private sector into the social care sector, thus ensuring that the sector has a high quality workforce in place to deliver personalised services.

Initiatives in the strategy include:

• CareFirst, a scheme which will get 50,000 long term unemployed working in social care, giving them the skills and experience they need for a permanent career in the sector
• increasing the number of apprenticeships in social care by around 1,300, targeting groups which have not traditionally taken up careers in social care
• establishing a new National Management Trainee Scheme to encourage graduates and top quality executives to move into the social care sector
• a new voluntary registration scheme for home care workers from 2010 to help safeguard people who use services and improve quality
• developing more Social Care Awards to raise the status of working in the sector and recognise the hard work the 1.5 million people working in social care are already doing
• more support for newly qualified social workers in their first year, backed by £4 million.

Minister of State for Care services Phil Hope, speaking at the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) Spring Seminar, said: "We want to encourage a new generation into social care - helping more of them make a difference in their communities, by taking on rewarding roles. This will bring new talent and skills to social care and fill the vacancies that have grown as the sector has expanded.

"This new Strategy will help to raise the status of social care careers, enable workers to provide more person centred care, lift standards and encourage more people to consider work in this sector.

"Once we recruit people, we must do everything we can to keep and grow new talent. I hope the new apprenticeships will go a long way to doing this.
'This strategy only sets the framework. We will work with employers, local authorities, professional social care bodies and skills agencies to make it a reality and create a workforce that has pride in itself, is respected by the public and supported to deliver high quality, personalised services well into the future."

Working to Put People First: The Strategy for the Adult Social Care Workforce in England can be downloaded here.