Care. Anchoring the future. Sign up to the Social Care Commitment. You re part of the adult social care picture

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1 Issue 34 autumn/winter 2016 Care Issue 34 autumn/winter 2016 Sign up to the Social Care Commitment You re part of the adult social care picture Bernadette Mossman discusses the importance of leadership development Anchoring the future Plus... Accolades judging Moving Up is changing lives Our annual conference 1

2 Care magazine Contents 4 Setting the standards for great management 5 6 Tough choices for Accolades judges Learning disabilities framework Recognising good online learning Do you like us? 12 Sign up to the Social Care Commitment 7 Recruitment and retention: the road to success - our annual conference 8 9 Make values based recruitment work for you Moving Up is changing lives 14 You re part of the picture 10 Anchoring the future 16 You get out what you put in Follow us... twitter.com/skillsforcare facebook.com/skillsforcare linkedin.com/company/skills-for-care 2

3 Issue 34 autumn/winter 2016 Welcome to the autumn/winter edition of Care magazine. Travelling around the country I am privileged to meet many outstanding social care leaders and workers; and I also know how tough it is to find quality people and keep them. Recruitment and retention is an ongoing challenge for the majority of employers and although we are making progress there is still work to be done. That s why the theme of our 2017 national conference is recruitment and retention where there will be a chance to learn from people who are successfully meeting the recruitment and retention challenge. Our conference is always a lively and informative day and a great networking opportunity. You can find out how to access our special early bird ticket offer on page seven. I d love to see you there! As recruitment and retention is such a major issue for our sector, it s right that our organisation has developed a wide range of products to support employers to find high quality people. One of the key ones is the Values and behaviours based recruitment toolkit, developed with employers. Available via our website, these resources help employers get a real sense of the core values the person they are interviewing holds. It s Social Care Commitment week in November so we talk to employers who have benefitted from signing up and how implementing it helps their organisations deliver high quality care and support. Employers have told us how making the Social Care Commitment part of their recruitment process, together with values and behaviours based recruitment, really helps get it right first time. Don t forget in this issue you can find out how to link up with us via Facebook and LinkedIn, which will help you find out more about what we are doing and our products that will help you tackle a range of issues. You can also follow us on or Sharon Allen Chief Executive Officer, Skills for Care If you d like to advertise in care magazine please contact marketing@skillsforcare.org.uk 3

4 Care magazine Setting the standards of great management Our Manager Induction Standards offer an excellent opportunity to develop a robust induction for new managers. They set out clearly what a new manager needs to know and understand as they begin their management journey. We ve updated and introduced new standards to reflect the changing picture of adult social care provision and help organisations manage future changes. The manager induction standards are preparing the innovative, knowledgeable and dedicated managers of today Aimee Brakes, Registered Manager. New standard - manage self This standard is important as managers act as role models to those they manage within their organisations. It identifies the need to be able to organise yourself to perform your own role effectively, while also taking account of the needs and priorities of others. New standard - entrepreneurial skills and innovation This standard explores the area of managing and growing the business and how you can adopt it. The social care sector is constantly changing and it s important that businesses, both large and small, adapt to the changing market. New standard - decision making This is now listed as a separate standard, to recognise the importance of making decisions and the challenges faced by managers every hour of every day. The revised Manager Induction Standards will be launched in autumn 2016 at 4

5 Issue 34 autumn/winter 2016 Tough choices for Accolades judges The judges for our Accolades awards that recognise the outstanding achievements of the very best adult social care employers are now sifting through this year s entries. The Accolades were created 13 years ago as an opportunity to celebrate high quality care and excellence in workforce development across England. With very strong competition in all ten of this year s categories, the judges will have some difficult choices to make in selecting the final shortlist in each category. The shortlisted finalists will be published at the end of November 2016 and the winners announced at the awards ceremony on 9 March Thank you to our sponsors Jewish Care, The Guardian and Unique Training Solutions who help make the awards happen. For more information on the Accolades visit Recognising good online learning Skills for Care recognises quality training companies through our Endorsement Framework. We visit training companies who can show us they are excellent at delivering training and really do help staff deliver better care. In the past, we ve only visited traditional training companies, but now we ve found a way to endorse online learning. This will ensure that social care employers can find reputable and high quality online training. The first company to be endorsed is My Learning Cloud. If you want to find endorsed training companies visit our free online directory at You can search by provider, course and region. 5

6 Care magazine New framework to support people with learning disabilities A new Learning Disabilities Core Skills Education and Training Framework has been launched to help improve the care delivered to people with learning disabilities. The framework sets out the skills and knowledge care and health workers need to apply to deliver quality learning disabilities services. It aims to support the development and delivery of appropriate and consistent cross-sector learning disabilities education and training. It was commissioned by the Department of Health and we ve developed it with Health Education England and Skills for Health. To download the framework visit Do you like us? Have you visited our Skills for Care Facebook page yet? We regularly post discounts for publications, free resources and lots of stories and videos - so pop along and like us. Over 4,000 people like us already why not join them? If you ve got a professional profile on LinkedIn you can also connect with us here. 6

7 Issue 34 Autumn/Winter autumn/winter 2016 Recruitment and retention: the road to success It s not surprising that with around 60,000 job vacancies in our sector on any given day that employers tell us recruitment and retention is a major concern for them. That s exactly why the theme of our 2017 national conference in Liverpool is Recruitment and retention: the road to success. As well as keynote presentations from high profile speakers, the day-long conference will be packed with interactive workshop sessions with contributions from organisations sharing how they have successfully tackled their recruitment and retention issues. Workshops include: how to target and attract workers the importance of leadership and management in retaining staff how you can use the new Apprenticeship Standards how to start with values based recruitment and retention. Our CEO Sharon Allen says: When we asked this year s delegates what worked they told us very clearly that hearing how organisations had tackled their issues provided some really useful ideas they could take back to their own organisations. Our conference is also a chance for the Skills for Care team to share our latest thinking and products that will help organisations recruit and keep high quality people with strong values. The Skills for Care 2017 conference takes place at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool on Thursday 9 March Special early bird offer limited places available at 199+VAT instead of 245+VAT. To book go to now. 7

8 Care magazine Make values based recruitment work for you We ve updated our online toolkit with new practical resources and case studies, to help you recruit and retain workers with the right values, behaviours and attitudes. What do your values and behaviours look like? Having a clear values and behaviours framework will enable you to recruit and manage staff who fit with your organisation s culture, and as a result deliver the best outcomes for people who need care and support. How can our toolkit help? The example values and behaviours framework shows an outline of social care values and behaviours. Examples of what employers would like/don t want to see shows how staff can apply values in the workplace. Are you looking for recruits in the right places? If you get values and behaviours-based recruitment and retention right, it has the potential to help you reach new pools of candidates who may never have considered working in social care before. How can our toolkit help? We have resources to help you widen the pool of your potential recruits, including support to: recruit and retain older workers link with local schools and stand out from the crowd as an colleges employer of choice work with Jobcentre Plus. recruit and retain disabled workers Ask the right questions Making sure you ask the right questions will help you identify whether recruits have the right values, behaviours and attitudes for your organisation. How can our toolkit help? Example application form and interview questions to help you recruit people with the right values and behaviours. Guidance and matrix of profiling systems, including A Question of Care: A career for you. Involving people who need care and support in recruitment activities. To download these resources and find lots more visit 8

9 Issue 34 autumn/winter 2016 Moving Up is changing lives If we want to deliver quality, person-centred care then it s important that the leadership profile in adult social care reflects the diverse communities it serves. Our Moving Up leadership programme supports managers from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to progress into senior leadership roles in social care. The 2015/2016 cohort have now completed the year-long programme and their feedback has been very positive. Samuel Mulira, Registered Manager at Westminster Society for People with Learning Disabilities, said: The way the course is run is very helpful and it gave me an insight into myself and what is providing a barrier so that I can move forward. Olakunbi Aiyelabola, Team Leader at Dimensions, agreed, saying she s had great feedback since the programme. My manager told me two weeks ago that he has seen another person in me entirely. For more information visit Interviewing for values, behaviours and attitudes For managers who want to improve staff performance, lower staff turnover and provide a positive return on investment, research suggests that taking a values based approach to recruitment and retention is a powerful approach. Come along to one of our practical sessions to find out what values based recruitment is and learn how to interview for it. You ll have the opportunity to develop and practice new interviewing techniques to ensure you recruit workers with the right values, behaviours and attitudes and you ll learn how to identify and assess how they align with the values of your organisation. Find your local seminar and book your place at 9

10 Care magazine ANCHORING the future When Anchor Care opened applications for 50 Apprenticeships they got over 2,000 applications from young people keen to start their social care careers. The Apprenticeships on offer were in different roles from care work to recruitment across their national network of services and aimed at apprentices aged Anchor s Qualifications and Apprenticeships Manager Katie Rankin said: We re keen to get more young people as we know that is an age group that we are lacking at the moment in the industry. But they also start with the skills and attributes we want so we are moulding the talent of the future within Anchor. We look for suitable people at careers events, school and college visits, through the national Apprenticeship vacancies website, and our career in care website, trying to use as many options as we can to recruit the right people. Katie and her team have developed a rigorous selection process that uses different techniques, including values-based recruitment, to identify candidates best suited to the different roles. She added: We have a set of questions we would use for non-experienced applicants to talk to them about what they understand about certain situations, how they ve acted in certain situations that we could link back to a care setting and see how they do with that. It s quite a basic interview so we can see if they fit the criteria and see why they applied. 10

11 Issue 34 autumn/winter 2016 If we think they come across well, we invite them to an assessment centre where we do a number of group and individual exercises to see how they fit in that environment. They are normally held in a working care home so residents come in from time to time to talk to them. We are looking to see if they take into account customer needs and we do a values-based interview if we think they are right from there. They tend to come in quite shy and nervous, but by the end of the programme they are confident in standing up at an event or at a school talking about their experiences. They are very good at putting social care in a positive light as they talk about it quite naturally. Katie said the best part of her role is watching the apprentices blossom, gaining qualifications as they develop the skills and knowledge they need to become outstanding workers. To find out how Skills for Care can help you develop your Apprenticeship programme go to 11

12 Care magazine Sign up to the Social Care Commitment As part of Social Care Commitment Week we ve created four new videos highlighting the benefits of signing up to organisations and the people they support. The Social Care Commitment is the sector s promise to provide people who need care and support with high quality services. It s made up of seven statements with associated tasks that address the minimum standards required when working in care. The commitment aims to both increase public confidence in the care sector and raise workforce quality. 12

13 Issue 34 autumn/winter 2016 Social Care Commitment Week 7-11 November 2016 A week dedicated to celebrating the Social Care Commitment and the achievements of those who have signed it. During the week, we d like to encourage you to either sign up or publicly declare your commitment on social media by using the hashtag #SCCWeek. The short videos are a chance to hear from people who are already signed up to find out how it is working in practice, and how signing up has had a positive impact on their organisation, their staff and most importantly - the people who use their services. It was great to have something that recognised good quality care. We only ever hear about the bad news and the Social Care Commitment gave an opportunity to say this is good, this is what we do. Melanie Weatherley, Chief Executive of Walnut Care. To watch the videos go to It s easy to sign up online by visiting or if you would prefer to speak to someone you can call the support team on or them at tsccsupport@skillsforcare.org.uk. Why you should sign up to the Social Care Commitment It s a lot easier to sign up than you might think as it includes tasks that people are probably doing anyway - but the commitment helps give a structured approach to recruitment, induction, supervision and ongoing development. It s a great way to give staff, people who need care and support and their families confidence in what the organisation does as it s clear to see what everyone is working towards. It helps to embed values, create a positive culture and strong ethos as everyone is working towards the same goals which are clearly set out within the Social Care Commitment. The employer and employee tasks can generate supporting evidence used to meet Care Quality Commission (CQC) standards and as evidence for employees undertaking the Care Certificate. 13

14 Care magazine You re part of the adult social care picture Employers across our sector use an online data collection system called the National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC). For nearly ten years now, you ve been helping us collect organisation and workforce information - such as age, gender, qualifications and pay rates. The information that your employers share with us helps us and others understand our sector better. Experts at Skills for Care then analyse this information and make sense of it, so we can help the Government, Ministers and others make well informed decisions about money, training and the future of our sector. This information also helps people understand what social care is all about, the wide range of jobs available and how qualified and experienced our workers are. 14

15 Issue 34 autumn/winter 2016 Here are some of the things we ve learnt. We know there are 1.55 million jobs in adult social care in England The number of residential services in England is 20, million of those jobs are full-time. The average age of someone working in the sector is 43 years old, and 82% of them are female. Average care worker pay was 7.46* per hour. You re part of a growing sector. Since 2009 the number of jobs in the sector has increased by 18%. The number of non-residential care services is 19,800. On average a worker has eight years of experience working in the sector. 65,000 people employ their own staff in England - the staff are often called personal assistants. If you d like to find out more about NMDS-SC, watch the video on the Skills for Care Facebook page What is the NMDS-SC or visit *as at March

16 You get out what you put in Bernadette Mossman, Healthcare Director at Vida Healthcare, discusses the importance of leadership development My name is Bernadette Mossman and I work for Vida Healthcare, a relatively new company established in 2010 with the aim of transforming the care available to older people living with dementia. This is my dream job. As a leader, I believe that the more you understand about how you impact on others and the pros and cons of your own actions and behaviours, the more you can reflect on how you can create better formulas to improve opportunities for positive outcomes and actions in the workplace, as well as in business growth and development. Leadership development allows you to explore and reflect on your approach to leadership and challenge yourself on what, why, where, when and who may impact on you, both in a positive and negative way. I recently completed the Top Leaders course with Skills for Care to challenge and develop my leadership skills and to discover what makes me tick. Having a deeper understanding of myself has allowed me to adapt my approach and any leadership styles that may have restricted others from performing at their best. Having insight and reading the signs that may suggest that things are not progressing in a productive way due to team dynamics or leadership styles increases your confidence in challenging malignant approaches in a way that allows positive progression. Anyone considering a leadership development programme needs to explore very carefully what it is they are trying to achieve and find the right programme for them. The Top Leaders course was very challenging and demanded honest reflection and commitment. You get what you put in and the results can be very powerful and emotional. For more information visit