Information and support from Skills for Care
The Workforce Strategy aims to improve the quality of roles in adult social care, ensuring that the sector can attract and keep enough people with the right skills and values to provide the best possible care and support for the people who draw on it.
The Strategy highlights the impact of social care on improving lives – as well as its role in supporting economic growth, with the sector currently contributing almost £60 billion a year to the economy.
We’re proud to have led the development of the Strategy, in collaboration with a wide range of organisations and people with a stake in the future of the sector.
The Strategy is being launched alongside new workforce data also published today. The size and structure of the adult social care workforce in England report includes information about the size and composition of the adult social care workforce. Find out more about the report findings in the workforce intelligence section below.
Developing your workforce
Care workforce pathway: Survey on the enhanced care worker role
The current phase of development focuses on new role categories to cover deputy managers, registered managers, personal assistants and enhanced care worker.
The following survey is designed to gather your thoughts about 'enhanced' roles, whether your setting/organisation currently has enhanced care worker roles or not. We would like to understand the different roles that enhanced care workers are undertaking or could undertake, and to identify the benefits and challenges as well as learning and development opportunities for enhanced roles. The survey is expected to take 10 minutes to complete and will close on Friday 19 July, at 23:59.
Updated: Statutory and mandatory training guide for adult social care employers
This guide has been updated in line with the workforce strategy. It covers statutory and mandatory knowledge and skills in a variety of topic areas based on a review of legislation, guidelines, statutory guidance, standards and recommendations.
Money for training - individual employer funding is open
People who receive adult social care direct payments, NHS personal budgets, and those who use their own money to employ personal assistants (PAs) can apply for funding for their PAs training, the development of their own knowledge as an employer and hiring replacement support whilst your PA attends training courses. Join our Q&A session to find out more, we’ll be running through how to apply and answering any questions.
The Workforce Development Fund 2024-25 is now open
The Workforce Development Fund (WDF) is now open to organisations that provide adult social care services and directly employ care staff within England. The fund is being scaled down in 2024-25 and it will only be possible to claim WDF for qualifications and apprenticeships which started on or before 31 March 2024 and which will complete by 31 March 2025. This year, WDF will be distributed exclusively by Skills for Care.
Support for leaders and managers
Register for our Moving Up programme
Places on our Moving Up programme are selling fast so don’t miss out - book your place by 27 September. The programme supports people from Black and Asian minority groups who are managers or aspiring managers and who want to progress in their career.
This programme blends live online sessions and self-learning modules. It gives participants the opportunity to:
develop their leadership style
better understand who they are
enhance their confidence
identify strengths and weaknesses
learn a variety of techniques to overcome personal challenges
build a supportive network
Digital leadership programme
Our successful digital leadership programme is designed specifically for registered managers and deputy managers working in adult social care. The four-day virtual programme has been developed to build digital confidence and ability. It will support managers to have the underpinning skills, knowledge and models of digital leadership that can be practically applied when implementing technology in a care service and promote best practice. The programme starts on Monday 9 September.
⇨ Find out more and book your place
Registered manager network case studies
Our local networks are a great place for managers to meet and talk to other managers and find support. We know how important they are to registered managers, so we asked some network attendees to tell us about their experiences with their local network. We’ve pulled together some short case studies where managers share what they get out of attending and why they would recommend the networks to other managers.
Workforce intelligence
Size and structure of the adult social care sector report published
Skills for Care has launched our annual ‘Size and structure of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report.
It shows that the total number of filled posts in adult social care has increased to the highest number on record to 1.705m in 2023/24, compared to 1.635m the year before. The total number of vacant posts has decreased to 131,000, despite the overall size of the workforce increasing. It’s now estimated that there are 1.59m people working in adult social care in England.
Take a virtual tour of the ASC-WDS
Wednesday 18 September | 13:30 – 14:30 | Zoom
Join us at our webinar designed to give social care providers a demonstration of how the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) service works. It will be a practical run-through of the service and will show you first-hand the key features which are already being used by over 20,000 care providers.
Events
Delegated healthcare activities: Practical ways to apply guiding principles in your service
Tuesday 10 September | 10:30 – 11:30 | Zoom
This webinar for frontline managers of adult social care services will deepen understanding of the guiding principles and resources to support person-centred, safe and effective delegation of healthcare activities. You’ll hear from a panel of care providers who will share their experiences focusing on how to introduce and embed the principles into practice.
⇨ Book your place on the webinar
CQC Single Assessment Framework: Key learnings from the first six months and beyond
Wednesday 18 September | 14:00 – 15:00 | Zoom
Presented in partnership with The Outstanding Society, this webinar will explore what is being celebrated as Good and Outstanding care from some of the newer areas of assessment focus, what is causing providers to fall below expectations, and what are your best opportunities to showcase the quality of care you provide. The webinar will highlight some of the obstacles providers have experienced and share tips and resources to overcome these.
Improving your CQC rating seminar
Tuesday 22 October | 10:00 – 15:30 | Zoom
This interactive seminar is for services who have fallen below CQC standards and are looking for practical ways to recover and achieve a Good rating. Explore the benefits of making improvements, how to overcome barriers, how to action and evidence improvements and how to involve others in helping you to improve.
Being prepared for CQC assessment seminar
Thursday 14 November | 10:00 – 15:30 | Zoom
With the changes to CQC assessment, this seminar brings together frontline managers to learn about the step-by-step ways to be ready to evidence that your service meets CQC expectations to achieve a Good or Outstanding rating. Discover practical ways to prepare for assessment and evidence the quality care you’re providing.