Sheffield Communities Portfolio
Delivering the Transformation Agenda
The Adult Social Care Workforce Strategy
2010/2011
CONTENTS
Executive Summary ............................................................................. 3
Introduction .......................................................................................... 5
The Workforce Strategy 2010/11 .......................................................10
Leadership in Workforce Planning ...................................................10
Recruitment & Retention Career Pathway........................................12
Workforce Remodelling & Commissioning for Service
Transformation ...................................................................................14
Workforce Development ....................................................................16
Joint & Integrated Working with Health & Other
Providers ............................................................................................20
Regulation for Quality ........................................................................22
Conclusion .........................................................................................24
WD/plans/Adult Workforce Strategy 2010/11
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Sheffield Communities Portfolio
The Adult Social Care Workforce Strategy 2010/11
Delivering the Transformation Agenda
Executive Summary
Working to Put People first: The Strategy for the Adult Social Care Workforce in
England outlines the key workforce priorities from the Putting People First
transformation agenda. It identifies 6 key priorities for the workforce going forward.
They are:






The leadership of local employers in workforce planning whether in the public,
private, or third sectors and of Directors of Adult Social Services in their
strategic workforce commissioning role
Ensuring the right steps are taken to promote recruitment, retention, and
career pathways to provide the many talents the workforce needs
Workforce remodelling and commissioning to achieve service transformation,
and
Workforce development so we have the right people with the right skills; all to
be in conjunction with
More joint and integrated working between social, health care and other
sectors, and
Regulation for quality in services as well as public assurance
The strategy recognises that the workforce has to change and develop to deliver the
personalisation agenda. A key challenge will be the delivery of personalised services
in this time of economic uncertainty, and of the need to continue to attract new
entrants into the social care workforce particularly in promoting and developing social
care as an occupation of choice for younger people. The population demographics
show us that the workforce to deliver these services will need to grow in the next few
years and beyond and personalisation will mean that the workforce requires different
and an expanding range of skills to meet the requirements of people who use
services. The workforce of the future will look different to the workforce of today.
Whilst the personalisation of services is paramount the Director of Adult Social
Services and the Local Authority retain responsibility for ensuring the quality of
services delivered within the city and so responding to the refresh of national
common induction standards and of complying with the new arrangements for
qualifications within the sector are an important element of this strategy, as is making
development opportunities linked to these requirements available for the independent
and private sector within the city. It is important to develop this base line of good
practice. This summary highlights the Sheffield Community services response to the
Working to Put People first: The Strategy for the Adult Social Care Workforce in
England. In brief these are:
1.
Leadership in workforce planning – by responding to the InLAWS (integrated
local area workforce strategy) initiative and developing the use of the National
Minimum Data Set to inform workforce planning.
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2.
Recruitment and retention and career pathways through maintenance of
practice standards - implementation of the reform of qualification structure for
vocational staff with the introduction of the QCF- Qualification Credit
Framework, refresh of the Common Induction Standards (CIS) - changes to be
implemented by the Sheffield Care Sector Assessment Centre (SCSAC)
based at the Workforce Development Unit. Further development of the
nationally recognised apprentice scheme.
3.
Workforce remodelling and commissioning for service transformation - through
developing the new skill base to deliver self directed support and capturing the
learning to take forward the second stage of embedding new practice.
Delivering the in-house provider new skill developments for front line staff and
managers. Taking forward the People Development Strategy by developing
the infrastructure and detailing how the work required to deliver the Strategy
for Sheffield will be taken forward. Undertaking the health check for social
work ready for the mandatory arrangements in 2011 and the rollout of the
social work task force task force implementation plan
4.
Workforce Development – partly delivered through SDS developments and the
national refresh of the minimum standards and other items detailed in (3) but
also through the development of the Health and Social Care Academy which
will concentrate on effective delivery of vocational skills and particularly
through the development of the re-enablement skill requirements for Care4you
staff. There will be work undertaken to develop a model for the co-production
of training components and an increase in diversification of learning and
training delivery models through an increase in blended learning formats,
particularly through Learning Pool developments. Regional/sub regional
developments in relation to the Dementia Strategy and End of Life Care will
also be explored. Through advancing the work of the Learning Disability City
Wide Group for Workforce Development (WASP group) and its linkages to the
People Development Strategy.
5.
Joint and integrated working with Health - through the re-enablement
developments highlighted above but also through the development and
support for partnership working to achieve best value and increased coverage
for workforce development in the city and sub region - through development of
a Health and Social Care Academy, continuing development of the Practice
Learning Alliance, a reform of the South Yorkshire Partnership supported by
JIP/Skills for Care.
6.
Regulation for quality – working with services to establish practice standards
under the new qualification framework (QCF). Further expansion of the
learning and development offer to the IPV sector and to employers and their
Personal Assistants (PAs). Developing the arrangements for social work
reform which details a wide change agenda for this group of workers that
impacts from the entry selection process to the social work degree, to the
assessed year in practice and levels of practice beyond. This will require wide
scale changes to current arrangements in place to support entry into this
profession that local authorities are currently engaged in.
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It is the case, as the national strategy recognises, that the majority of the social care
workforce now sits within the private/voluntary sector. For most of the initiatives
detailed above we make no distinction between council employees and this other
workforce, other than at present for the initiatives relating to social work and where it
specifically describes initiatives relating to in-house provider staff.
Introduction
As already noted there are key policy initiatives that describe the direction of change
required within the social care workforce and in its service delivery structures
(Http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalas
set/dh_098494.pdf)
The aim of this workforce strategy for the social care workforce of the Communities
Portfolio is to detail Sheffield’s response to these requirements.
Policy Drivers
This document will not give full explanation of the key documents underpinning this
strategy but will refer to their location. It does however, as briefly as possible, outline
the key policy areas that inform the workforce activity detailed.
http://www.dhcarenetworks.org.uk/_library/Resources/ICN/ICN_advice/The_strategy
_for_the_adult_social_care_work_foce.pdf
The Local Authority Circular LAC (DH) (2009) 1
This lays a duty on all local authorities to develop and deliver:
“A local care workforce with the capacity and capability to deliver choice and support
individual control, with staff who are appropriately trained and empowered to be able
to work with people to enable them to manage risks and resources and achieve high
quality outcomes”. This is in line with the ongoing transformation of adult social care
as set out in ‘Putting People First: a shared vision and commitment to the
transformation of Adult Social Care’ (2007)1. Putting People First sets the direction
for adult social care over the next 10 years and more outlining 4 areas on which
councils and their partners should focus to help make sure services become more
personalised and to “get the right results for people”.
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These are:
Universal
Services
Early
intervention
and
prevention
Social capital
Choice and
control
In the longer term the circular envisages that all councils with adult social services
responsibilities should take a balanced approach to prevention and early intervention
and the delivery of personalised services, enabling individuals or groups to develop
solutions that work for them. Regionally the Department of Health have developed
support and resources for this service transformation via deputy regional directors for
social care and partnerships such as the JIP(Joint Improvement Partnership) and
REIP’s (Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships).
Putting People First supports local authorities in transforming their systems to make
care more personalised and preventative, and in improving access to information and
advice. The Government has also set a strong direction with a number of important
strategies, including the carers’ strategy, the end-of-life care strategy, Independent
Living, the Dementia Strategy, Valuing People Now, the Right to Control, the Autism
Strategy and New Horizons: a shared vision for mental health.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalass
et/dh_095813.pdf
National Care Service White Paper (March 2010).
The outcome of the Big Care Debate launched to actively seek citizens views about
what type of social care services will be wanted in the future and how they are to be
funded resulted in the white paper - Building the National Care Service (March 2010).
This proposed the establishment of a National Care Service to be developed over
time as finances permit. This National Care Service will universal, free at the point of
need, use partnership working, ensure choice and control, support family, carers and
community life and be accessible and supportive. The first stage of these
developments will see reablement services available in every community through
which people are supported to regain their independence and confidence when they
need home care for the first time. This initially will be by driving forward the positive
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outcomes from existing reforms e.g. Dementia Strategy and Valuing People Now.
The second stage will be to put in place the building blocks of a national system of
care and support, in particular the establishment of clear, national standards and
entitlements. The third stage is when a comprehensive National Care Service
becomes a reality, with care free when people need it, requiring everyone to
contribute through a fair care contribution. What people can expect from the National
Care Service is:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Prevention and wellbeing services to keep you independent
Nationally consistent eligibility criteria for social care enshrined in law
A joined-up assessment
Information and advice about care and support
Personalised care and support, through a personal budget
Fair funding, with a collective, shared responsibility for paying for care and
support.
In relation to the workforce the National Care Service proposes to:
“Introduce a licensing scheme for all social care workers, whether in residential care,
homecare or as personal assistants. This will be the basis of a Learning for Quality
campaign, to raise the skills of the care workforce and ensure that they are valued for
the vital and excellent jobs that they do. As part of this licensing scheme, employers
who demonstrate that they meet high standards and invest in care will be recognised
by a new National Care Service kite mark.
Since the election in May the status of this white paper is now undetermined
and a Royal Commission has been announced by the new Government to look
at social care provision and funding.
However key planks of the reform agenda linked to the white paper e.g. reenablement service provision is already being actioned within Care4you service and
will continue to be taken forward.
The Social Care Workforce Reform Grant
This grant provides monies to support councils in this transformation. The Grant is
additional to the monies provided through the Personal Social Services funding and
is specifically for the range of process re-engineering, capability and capacity building
activities required to redesign the entire system. The changes to be driven by this
funding are as follows:
1.
2.
3.
Changes to the social care system in a way that provides a more
straightforward, flexible approach, which delivers the outcomes people want
and need and promotes their independence, well-being and dignity.
A strategic shift in resources and culture from crises intervention towards
prevention and early intervention, focusing on promoting independence and
improved wellbeing in line with the needs of the local population and reaching
out to those at risk of poor outcomes.
People and their organisations involved in the design, commissioning and
evaluation of services and how their needs are met. This choice and control
should extend to individuals in every setting.
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4.
5.
6.
7.
Remodelling of systems and processes so they are not only efficient and
equitable but also recognise the ability of individuals to identify cost effective,
personalised solutions through wider community networks and innovation.
Joined up services to provide easy to recognise access points, which
coordinate or facilitate partner organisations to meet the needs of individuals.
Raising the skills of the workforce to deliver the new system, through
strengthening commissioning capability, promoting new ways of working and
new types of worker and remodelling the social care workforce.
Developing leadership at all levels of local government and communities to
enable this change to happen.
It is not clear given the economic climate if this money will continue to be available
for 2010/11, some economic forecasters being of the view that this is one of the
grants that might be withdrawn. Most of the current funds used for workforce
development for SDS, other than for the backfill team, have come from the social
care element of the area based grant.
The Social Work Task Force Recommendations/Implementation Plan
The final report of the social work task force was published on 1st December 2009
producing a challenging set of recommendations to the Government for social work
reform. The report emphasises that the practice of social work needs to be raised to
a new level. The Task Force has recommended the creation of a single national
reform programme for social work. This programme would drive the delivery of the
key recommendations over the next five years. A Social Work Reform Board has
now been created in response to the recommendations and has published an activity
plan that takes the required changes through to 2013. In brief they are as follows:
1. Calibre of Entrants: that the criteria governing the calibre of entrants to social
work education and training be strengthened. Criteria to be agreed by March
2011 and in place for all 2012 entrants.
2. Curriculum and Delivery: an overhaul of the content and delivery of social
work degree courses. Available from September 2012 and mandatory from
September 2013. This will include changes to practice placement days. The
Bursary will be protected up to 2011 intake.
3. Practice Placements: that new arrangements are put in place to provide
sufficient high quality practice placements, which are properly supervised and
assessed, for all social work students. Practice Education standards agreed
March 2011 and in place for September 2011 and mandatory from 2013. All
final placements should be statutory and there will be a Practice Educator
career grade.
4. Assessed Year in Employment: the creation of an assessed and supported
year in employment as the final stage in becoming a social worker. This will
build upon NQSW schemes into a licence to practice. There will be pilots from
2012 becoming mandatory from 2016.
5. Regulation of Social Work Education: more transparent and effective
regulation of social work education to give greater assurance of consistency
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and quality with the GSCC publishing annual monitoring reports from summer
2010 and a new regulatory framework in place by September 2012.
6. Standard for Employers: The development of a clear national standard for
the support social workers should expect from their employers in order to do
their jobs effectively. Social work employers to undertake a health check in
2010/11 with national standards for employers by April 2011.
7. Supervision: the new standard for employers to be supported by clear
national requirements for the supervision of social workers. These standards
to be in place by April 2011.
8. Front Line Management: The creation of dedicated programmes of training
and support for all front line social work managers. A pilot Leadership and
Management programme for front line managers to be available by April 2011.
9. Continuing Professional Development: The creation of a more coherent
and effective national framework for continuing professional development of
social workers, along with mechanisms to encourage a shift in culture which
raises expectations of an entitlement to ongoing learning and development.
The new CPD framework to be developed with a new Masters in Social Work
created and piloted from September 2011.
10. National Career Structure: The creation of a single, nationally recognised
career structure for social work. It is planned to develop the career structure
and LA pay structure by summer 2010, with a pilot in 2011and process
embedded by 2014.
11. National College of Social Work: The creation of an independent national
college of social work developed and led by social workers. An interim chair
is to be appointed in 2010 with the college established as a legal entity by July
2010 and fully functioning by April 2011.
12. Public Understanding: A new programme of action on public understanding
of social work with a role for the LGA to promote social work and meet with
press.
13. Licence to Practise: The development of a licence to practise process for
social workers which will replace current registration of social workers by 2016
and will review the Codes of Practise for social workers and employers.
14. Social Worker Supply: A new system for forecasting the levels of supply and
demand for social workers that in 2010/11 will develop a baseline for new
indicators for turnover and supply (initially in Children’s Services) and will build
a demand model through better workforce planning and improved partnership
working.
15. National Reform Programme: Proposes the creation of a single national
reform programme for social work which will provide annual reviews of
progress of the previous 14 recommendations over the next 10 years.
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http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/@p
s/documents/digitalasset/dh_114251.pdf
16. Social Work Health Check: The first activity for local authorities will be
undertaking an initial social work health check by spring 2011 ready for the
new compliance measures that will come into place later that year. The
details of what this health check requires can be found at:
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/swtf/downloads/SWTF%20Health%20Check%20(final).pdf
The Workforce Strategy 2010/11
This strategy sets out the response of Sheffield Communities Portfolio to the policy
themes where they directly or indirectly relate to workforce development and
workforce planning for adult social care services primarily within the paid workforce of
the council and its contracted services.
Leadership in Workforce Planning
Developing leaders
Within adult social care services in the council a management pathway has
developed. This framework has responded to the needs of services as
transformation or service redesign has taken place. Both the Social Work Reform
Board and the National Skills Academy are working on management and leadership
skills identification and development pathways and both see that development
targeted at front line managers is crucial to driving up standards within services. As
these pathways become clearer, work will be undertaken to map the new
requirements against existing routes and as required develop new delivery
arrangements either through commissioned programmes or in-house delivery, or a
mixture of both. As far as resources allow the new models will also be targeted to
the IPV sector, building on the work begun with opening access to the current ILM
routes.
The National Skills Academy (NSA) has as one of its key priorities the development
of leadership and management skills within the adult social care sector. They are in
the process of consulting on this with the aim of delivering:
•
•
•
•
Developments for aspiring Leaders across the whole sector
Management and leadership development for First Time and First Line
Managers including Personal Employers
Leadership development opportunities for Senior Leaders across the sector
A clear framework for leadership development and progression.
The aim is to build on the NVQ qualifications achievements within the sector with a
future concentration on developing leadership skills. Developing individual and
collective leadership skills is at the heart of the NSA.
We aim to respond to the outcomes of the NSA pilot work once this is made known to
the sector and to begin with offers to the IPV sector for first line management skill
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building through access to ILM - Institute of Leadership and Management levels 3
and 4 programmes.
Inlaws – Integrated Local Area Workforce Strategy
Developments will move apace in the Autumn and whilst we have made a very good
start with the Sheffield People Development Strategy the aim for this national
initiative is that all local authorities refresh their current workforce strategies and
ensure for the future that finance and commissioning work closely together with
workforce development in the planning and delivery of all workforce strategies. This
is even more relevant with the planned cuts in public expenditure. Personnel will be
assigned to the roles required to take this work forward.
The National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) - for workforce planning
It is important that we have workforce intelligence to inform and focus our work into
the independent, private and voluntary sector. This is needed to ensure we can
maximise the use of scarce resources and use them to achieve greatest impact. The
NMDS is a key tool to help us achieve this. At present the records for the council’s
own adult social care workforce is not on the system and this poses some problems.
The council has “parent” rights to scrutinise the records of the IPV sector but needs
to make sure its own records are in place first and the WDU cannot bid for Skills for
Care monies for core units of competence as it requires a 90% completion rate of the
NMDS fields in order to be eligible to bid. Meetings with CAPITA who now have
contractual responsibility for this work have highlighted little if any activity. An action
plan is in the process of being developed to identify how this work can go forward –
with the aim that the data is inputted by September 2010. This is needed as the
SSD001 form that all councils have completed to inform data returns to DH/CQC will
in all likelihood be replaced this year by an NMDS return and this would be due in
September. Services in the first instance will need to supply information on all
registered services so that the baseline information can be fed into the data set.
Further work on worker records will then follow. The aim is that familiarity with
inputting our own records will develop skills in the use of the data set so that
personnel can reliably extract data on the wider social care sector in Sheffield in the
near future to inform workforce planning. NMDS reports will replace SSD 001 in
2011.
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Recruitment and Retention and Career Pathways (through
maintenance of practice standards)
There are a number of initiatives running in the portfolio continuing into 2010/11 that
contribute to the recruitment and retention agenda for the portfolio. It is crucial that
we encourage and support a diverse range of entrants into the social care workforce
including into the independent/private sector provision.
1. Apprenticeships:
These are run in partnership with Sheffield College. The scheme has run
successfully for the last 4 years and is expanding to double the number of
apprentices with 2 intakes a year. The new scheme has allowed us to reduce costs
so enabling an increase in numbers for little extra investment. The apprentices now
attend college and complete their BTEC award prior to joining services for
placements to develop skills and complete their NVQ level 2. A development
programme for the apprentices has been worked out with Sheffield College which
avoids duplication of teaching and focuses on real skill development. It is envisaged
that we should have 40 apprentices undertaking this development route during this
year. Placements are in Care4you, OD and LD provider services as well as some
placements within the independent sector. The challenge in 2010/11 will be to make
sure we can find suitable appointments for all who successfully complete the scheme
and so maximise on the investment. This approach helps considerably with the age
profile of the workforce.
2. Skills for Life:
The Skills for Life Strategy led form within the Communities Portfolio encompasses
all adult social care services and also includes the social care staff in CYPS. The
Workforce Development Unit has also continued to work with parts of housing
strategy services who became involved in pilot initiatives some years ago. The
current priority areas linked to the Communities Portfolio action plan for 2010/11 are
as follows:

The development of a range of audit tools that will enable us to measure the
impact of our Skills for Life Action Plan activity and how this translates into
improved outcomes for staff, service areas and customers.

Co-working with external Skills for Life specialist to identify address and
embed Skills for Life levels and skills needs within our job descriptions, person
specifications and all our recruitment and selection processes. So far
mapping of some key job descriptions, person specifications, job adverts,
interview questions and interview tests to check and ensure these reflect the
appropriate Skills for Life levels for roles described has taken place. Services
involved have started to use this information to inform their job descriptions,
adverts, interview questions and tests. Some services such as Community
Support Services have started to recruit using these tools and approaches.
The above work around job Skills for Life levels and recruitment processes is
also being used to inform the Council's Business Support review (via Sue
Wright who is a member of our Communities Portfolio Skills for Life Steering
Group).
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
Development of a Hub operating model to deliver skills for life initiatives in
partnership with Sheffield College, the Sheffield Health and Social Care
Foundation Trust, Sheffield Children’s Hospital Foundation trust and Sheffield
City Council Communities Portfolio and the Independent sector. This
approach will support a single entry point into the college for learners,
coordinate record keeping tracking learner progress, consistently delivering
core development requirements and developing ongoing communication and
sound relationships between partners relating to this development area.
The range of learners identified for the initiative in 2010/11 is:




Those in job carved roles
Support Workers from across Provider Services
Business Support staff, including managers
Managers across a range of service areas
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Workforce Remodelling and Commissioning for Service
Transformation
1.
Personalisation and Self Directed Support
The personalisation agenda is now well founded within large areas of the portfolio.
The main activity in 2010/11 will be to widen this understanding further, to examine
the skills set for key groups of staff required to deliver personalised services and to
embed the values and principles of self directed support through new working
practices in assessment and care management. Disseminating the learning will be
vital to the culture change required and will be a discrete area of work for 2010/11.
2.
SDS Workforce Development Project Group and SDS In-House Provider
Group
The SDS Workforce Development project group has now timetabled the initial phase
of training for assessment and care management staff, with a plan that the 4 day
training will run to early August 2010. Planning for the development activity for other
staff groups is underway with the intention to develop assessment and care
management services business support requirements by early summer. The inhouse provider group has commissioned a management business skill programme
for in-house provider managers that will start in June 2010, the aim being that
managers develop skills in how to deliver and develop services that meet customer
need including unit costs, market placement, market differentiation and marketing
positioning. An SDS management skills framework is in the initial stages of
development. Dependent on evaluation and funding this programme may be
delivered to the IPV sector.
A pilot programme delivered in PDSI provider services at the end of 2009/10 is to be
further evaluated to see if the learning can be transposed to other service areas.
Use of the Kwango SDS e-learning package for independent, private and voluntary
sector (IPV) and other in- house services will be promoted and take up monitored
during the year with reports going to the Training Commissioning Group (TCG) and
the SDS workforce development project group.
Exploration of how the use of the Learning Pool/Moodle sites in relation to
personalisation and SDS particularly to support learning to take place in 2010/11 particularly their potential to support the development of communities of practice.
Development of use of these sites may be of particular use in developing the skills of
people who use services for the learning needs of their own employees
NB The project working in relation to SDS and the transformation agenda is being
reshaped and the work of the current workforce project group will be effected by
these changes - project definition workshops being in July 2010 to take this forward.
3.
Sheffield People Development Strategy
The People Development Strategy for Sheffield has been ratified by the Adult Social
Care Leadership Team and the SDS Partnership Board. The action plan from the
strategy now needs to be resourced and taken forward. Work has begun on the
strategy but key personnel both from within the WDU and from the SDS Workforce
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Development Project Group will need to contribute to or lead on specific activities. It
is intended to refresh and launch the strategy in September this year with an event
that pulls together all stakeholders who contributed to its development. From these
attendees we plan to develop interest in the governance arrangements for the
strategy.
The People Development Strategy itself details planned workforce development
activity for the next 3 years. This is complimented and supported by the activity
detailed within this strategy.
4.
Work with People who use Service and their Personal Assistants (PAs) Information from the working group.
There have been several consultations in Sheffield and in Scunthorpe for regional
work funded by the JIP. These consultations will continue as work is ongoing for the
development of a guidance handbook for employers based on the recommendations
of Direct Payment employers. The work of the Sheffield group has been well
received and the group intend to produce a document which is visually interesting.
The handbook will be loose leafed and made up of four sections, the fourth section
will be made up of contacts further information, web sites etc.
The aim is that the general overview leaflet will give people basic information. They
will then build up as much of a handout pack as they want based on the individual
decisions they are making.
A draft handbook will be ready by July (this is in keeping within the conditions of the
JIP project). This will then be piloted with all new people considering a direct
payment from September through to December 2010, across all adults’ service
areas. The same activity will be taking place in N Lincs. We are meeting regionally
at the beginning September to confirm all processes on how it will be used.
We are developing an evaluation form for Social Workers and for those receiving and
using the information, so we can ensure any amendments are incorporated before
the handbook goes live in January 2011.
We are currently awaiting approval from the JIP to continue with the work around the
passport for Personal Assistants as a means of evidencing their learning which they
will have had from their employer.
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Workforce Development
1.
The Health and Social Care Academy
A key plank of the People Development Strategy is the development of a health and
social care academy in partnership with Sheffield College. The STH have moved a
key element of their vocational provision into the new City College focusing primarily
on employability, apprentices and skills for life. Further discussions will take place as
to how the social care sector can also figure in this new venture. This would greatly
assist in the community development aspect of the People Development Strategy
and would provide a viable access route for people who use services and their
personal assistants (PAs). An outline of adult social care requirements from the
academy are to be developed to frame the discussion with health and FE colleagues.
2.
Re-enablement Skill Development
The Workforce Development Unit and Care4you service are consulting on the skill
set and development needs of all support workers. There is a view that all workers
need to be well skilled in delivering re-enablement services in line with the
personalisation and prevention agendas. The services’ earlier approach had used
health service personnel to deliver a range of training related to occupational therapy
and support. However this approach could not be mainstreamed and developed
because of staffing issues/availability from the health side. It is planned that in
2010/11 a sustainable development programme will be identified, linked to
occupational standards and service users declared needs. In line with this the career
pathways and qualification routes will have to be reviewed and in all likelihood
changed. This will draw on the implementation of the Qualification Credit
Framework, the blended learning developments and exploration of the wider use of
an assessment tool already in use within the service.
Initial discussions have taken place within the Sheffield Vocational Development
Group as to how this ongoing skill development need can be addressed, as this
group aims to work collaboratively to both health and social care priorities. This
group will foster discussion between adult social care services and the health
community to seek a resolution.
3.
Programme Redesign/Co-production of Training and Development
Programmes and Materials
Some programmes delivered to the communities social care staff already have input
from service users. However the demands of having staff skilled to meet the
personalisation agenda means that all learning and development programmes as
they come up for review will need to be looked at as to how they can give real
opportunity for the voice of service users to be heard. In particular we face the
challenge of training staff in key legislative areas e.g. health and safety where the
requirements placed on them because of the situation in which they are working is so
different from the more traditional focus of a residential/day centre. We aim to
develop a co produced programme for health and safety that looks at how workers
need to respond when they are working within the home of their employee, informed
by employees and their workers. The intention is that in the development of the
programme a methodology to inform future co production will be developed.
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The personalisation agenda requires that the voice of people who use services is
central to all learning development and delivery. Whilst many programmes in the
past have had input from service users shaping messages about service delivery that
they want workers at all levels to be aware of, few programmes have been developed
in total with explicit service user involvement. A key exception to this is the Choosing
Staff programme in disability services. Wholesale programme redesign cannot be
achieved overnight and the aim is that learning and development programmes as
they come up for review will be subject to the methodology we are seeking to
develop as outlined on page ???
4.
Blended Learning
With the increased use of blended learning we have the ability to deliver
development activity in very different ways for different audiences. We also have the
potential to capture the experiences and input from people who use services in many
different ways and can develop ways that allow them to deliver their own very
personalised training for their own PAs (Personal Assistants) . This will be explored
under the auspices of the SDS project. It is hoped that such avenues will provide
material that can be effectively used in the co- production of other learning
programmes.
Blended learning responses to refresher programmes for food hygiene and other
core programmes will be sought this year with the aim being to reduce the impact on
service release for these ongoing refresher modules. Services will benefit from being
able to select the most appropriate learning route for a member of staff.
The council through BIS has recently purchased licences for the Learning Pool, a
Moodle platform that many local authorities use to deliver their e-learning through.
Programmes can either be self developed and put onto the site; can be
commissioned for bespoke development by Learning Pool or LA’s own programmes
hosted on the site can with permission be shared across authorities. In 2010/11 we
aim to explore the usefulness of the site and to transfer e-packages already used in
the Communities Portfolio onto this site for the use of internal staff. The Moodle site
used previously within Communities will be retained and developed as currently
Learning Pool does not have access licences for any other than council employees
with managed service accounts.
5.
National Skills Academy (NSA) -pilot
The WDU will be taking part in a pilot of a programme endorsement process being
run out by the National Skills Academy (NSA) for Social Care. The programme to be
piloted is a communication module sitting within the induction and core programme
which evidences a range of delivery techniques and has a significant input within it
from people who use services and Speech and Language Therapists. As part of the
pilot process the Workforce Development Manager and a Learning and Development
Consultant will peer-review 2 programmes from 2 other training providers - one from
the voluntary sector and 1 from a HEI. The learning will be used to identify what if
any changes in the development of training programmes need to be made and will
also help to inform if the methods used to secure service user input into programmes
as shown within the communication module stand up to the national standard that is
being developed. Dependent on the outcome of this process the WDU will look to
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secure organisational endorsement from the National Skills Academy in the near
future. The learning from this can be used to inform developments as detailed above
and support the development work integral to the Sheffield People Development
Strategy.
6.
Developing the Social Care Sector - Work into Private and Voluntary
Organisations
A feature of the social care learning and development activity within the council is
that the boundary between in-house and external service provider is increasingly
disappearing. The role of the DASS is to ensure quality social care provision
irrespective of where this is delivered from. As such access to learning and
development must be as accessible as possible (noting funding limitations) to all
social care organisations within the city. In support of this a number of initiatives are
underway and will continue and develop in 2010/11:
7.
The IPV Training Commissioning Forum
The Independent Private and Voluntary Sector Training Commissioning Forum was
established to achieve a prioritised approach to learning and development
requirements that could be funded via the social care training grant. This delivers an
annual training prospectus for the sector which also includes the delivery from the
Quality in Care Homes Team. Priorities for 2010/11 are as follows:




Training in support of the national minimum standards
Safeguarding
Medication
Moving and handling
(This is a sample from the complete list) – see IPV prospectus.
Contracted organisations are also to receive a range of materials to support effective
business practice and contract compliance and information on good practice related
to staff development.
The EG3 consultancy report, commissioned some time ago needs to be refreshed to
inform future work with the sector. It is important that all elements of workforce
planning address the needs of the wider sector.
8.
The Consultancy Model
For 2010/11 the aim is to extend the consultancy available to the sector by making
this a part of the role of all the Training and Development Consultants within the adult
social care team at the Workforce Development Unit (WDU). In addition the WDU will
be widening access to all mandatory and core training programmes and e-learning,
coupled with improved access to the LDIA award for learning disability organisations.
To further facilitate widening access to learning and development opportunities a
“train the trainers” approach is being developed with organisations within the sector,
to increase their understanding of the importance of staff development and to
increase their access to personnel who are trained and supported to deliver
development programmes. This initiative will grow in 2010/11 with a view to
establishing more trainers in the private sector to deliver Safeguarding, Moving and
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Handling and Medication training. A model of training and support will be rolled out
from the WDU for this purpose.
9.
The Quality in Care Homes Team
This team was set up several years go in response to the POPPS initiative. It is a
jointly funded partnership between the Communities Portfolio and the PCT, with the
communities funding coming from the IPV allocation for social care training of the
area based grant. This funding is a significant allocation from the 30% identified from
the grant for use in the IPV sector. The aim of the team is to deliver worksite based
and open access training to IPV nursing/care homes within the city to drive up
particular knowledge and skill areas. The full list of programmes is detailed in the
Independent Sector Prospectus for 2010/11.
10. WASP Group
This group is newly formed. It has an agreed City Wide Workforce Development
Plan signed off by the Learning Disability Partnership Board to work to. Its primary
focus is to engage with the private and voluntary sector to develop and take forward
the plan. It has now met 4 times. Early positive developments have been managers
from the sector accessing ILM level 3 programmes to develop first level management
skills, improved access to the training prospectus produced by the WDU for the
sector and the identification of a 2 key development needs across the wider sector:

*The remodelling of a core development programme – health and safety – to
refocus on how this can be delivered to support staff working in service users
own homes. This programme will need to be co-produced with people who
use services and workers working in their homes. This will not only provide a
different type of programme but will develop a methodology for how to
approach other core programmes to take account of the changing delivery
needs.

The development of a city wide challenging behaviour skills programmes, with
differing levels of skill identified, linked to relevant competencies. This will
support the work of the challenging behaviour group, part of the Learning
Disability Partnership Board.
(*The remodelling work also links to the wider SDS development agenda).
This development work will inform the main focus of the activity of the group for
2010/11. Linkages to the work of the Sheffield People Development Strategy will
need to be established during 2010/11.
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Joint and Integrated Working with Health and other Providers
It will be necessary to maximise the funding available for all workforce activity in the
coming years as well as developing new types of workers where the boundaries
between health and social care provision blur and/or overlap. For these reasons
developing partnership working with health and other colleagues will be vital. This
approach, which sees the division between the paid and unpaid workforce
disappearing, is a key plank of the Sheffield People Development Strategy. It is
important that we develop workforce planning and development opportunities that
support an integrated approach.
1.
The Quality in Care Homes Team
The Quality in Care Homes Team is referenced above but demonstrates one way in
which integrated working with health colleagues is benefiting the sector For 2010/11,
given pressures on all public services, we will achieve an SLA for service delivery for
this team for expected social care developments. Monitoring of this will be
undertaken by the Training Commissioning Forum for the IPV sector
2.
The South Yorkshire Partnership
The South Yorkshire Partnership was set up in 2009/10 as a response to a tender
opportunity from Skills for Care to drive key development areas relating to their
national skills business plan. As Skills for Care had insufficient funds to drive their
strategy, a bid was made to the JIP – Joint Improvement Programme – for funding to
deliver the strategy via 4 sub regional partnerships in Yorkshire and Humber. In
South Yorkshire a partnership was formed with a lead partner – required by Skills for
Care to meet tender arrangements- and 2 of the 4 local authorities had places on the
steering group. The steering group also has private and voluntary sector, FE, service
user and carer representation. There has been a recognition by Skills for Care that
within South Yorkshire the partnership has not functioned as desired and has shown
little added value to wider sector needs, instead focusing almost exclusively on the
achievement of the targets outlined in the tender. The local authorities have now
concluded that all 4 in the sub region should be represented on the steering group
and that the priorities that they present should drive the activity of the partnership.
Funding for 2010/11 from the JIP will be seriously curtailed and may disappear
altogether, therefore it is contingent on the partnership members to maximise the
value of any continuing funding and to actively look at how the partnership can thrive
without additional funding. Meetings later this summer will identify the key activity
areas for the partnership to take forward.
3.
The Practice Learning Alliance
The 4 local authorities in South Yorkshire also work in partnership to develop and
deliver practice learning opportunities for social work students from the universities in
the region as well as their own degree students coming through from “grow your own
routes”. Work for 2010/11 will determine what changes to practice teaching need to
be made in response to the Implementation plan being carried forward by the Social
Work Reform Board. The implementation plan refers to partnerships being formed
between agencies and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to deliver the new
requirements. Employers in the region are keen to ensure the agenda remains
employer focused and so the nature of what type of partnership is to be formed with
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HEIs will be discussed and explored in 2010/11. The first event in this dialogue will
be held in July 2010 at Hallam University. The universities are keen to engage with
service managers as well as learning and development representatives in this
dialogue.
The practice alliance will also be exploring the recommendation that organisations
involved in practice learning can seek advanced teaching organisations status and
will seek to establish a collaborative approach to this development.
4.
Learn to Care
The managers of the WDU are part of the national Learn to Care organisation and
use this to benchmark their activity with other LA social care providers across the
Yorkshire and Humber region. Recent meetings have identified collaborative work in
relation to the Dementia strategy and e-learning. It is believed that this presents an
opportunity to save on development time and therefore costs associated with any
new activity. The Learn to Care regional group will be looking to identify collaborative
work for 2010/11. Learn to Care‘s own business plan for 2010/11 takes forward
many of the national policy drivers and the organisation field representatives in to
government ministry policy groups to ensure the views and experience of the
learning and development services of local authorities can inform the debates. They
also meet regularly with health sector representatives and therefore use of this
organisation, particularly in their advocating for funding for social care to support the
prevention initiatives is valuable.
5.
SVDG - Sheffield Vocational Development Group
This group consists of representatives from workforce development from the City
Council, the Sheffield Foundation Trust and the Independent Sector. The aim of the
group is to develop joint approaches to workforce development. Specifically this
group addresses the needs of vocational staff within these service areas. A
collaborative approach to skills for life has already been achieved and the group will
be exploring ways of working together in relation to apprentices and the development
for the Health and Social Care Academy. It is envisaged that this group will provide
access to the professionals needed to model the re enablement training for Care4you
staff.
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Regulation for Quality
It is increasingly important that we can reassure the public of the skill and value base
of the workforce that delivers to their support needs. This applies not only to self
directed support but to the more traditional forms of service which are also
challenged to develop and deliver personalised services.
1.
Quality Assurance for Learning and Development Delivery -Customer
Service Excellence Standards (CSES):
The Workforce Development Unit will continue to benchmark its customer focused
activity against these standards and use the assessment process to inform on future
learning and delivery requirements. Re-assessment will take place in July 2010.
Use of a mystery shopper to check out the customer journey, a timeliness audit via
questionnaire and monitoring of evaluations will be used as evidence of our customer
engagement policy. Regular updates on activity and feedback to customers is given
via Working for Sheffield, Communities Newsletter and Team Briefs as required
2.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Evaluation methods for level 3 and above (Kirkpatrick) will be developed to offer
services a range of tools to evaluate the impact of learning and development on
service delivery. A pilot will take place using a scannable level 3 evaluation form, in
summer 2010 and on the basis of the evaluation of its effectiveness will be rolled out
further as agreed with service managers who commission learning programmes.
The increasing use of e-learning via the Learning Pool platform will require active
monitoring of outcomes by managers.
Consideration will be given in 2010 to an extension of the use of the CIS assessment
package currently used by the Care4you service into other service areas to support
validation of learning, the intention being that the tool is then available for use by any
service that requires the ongoing checking of quality practice by routes other than
competency mapping or attendance on formal training via refresher type training
programmes.
3.
Changes from National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) to the QCF
framework
2010/11 sees the migration of the NVQ awards in social care into the new
Qualification Credit Framework. As the migration takes place Sheffield Care Sector
Assessment Centre (SCSAC) will update all Assessors and Internal Verifiers within
organisations both internal to and external to the council and will offer briefing
sessions to the various partnership groups. It will work with services to establish
access to the new qualification framework and give advice on assessment
methodology and the selection of awards and competencies. This service will also
be available to people who use services who want to access the framework for their
own personal assistants.
4.
Social Work Reform
In the introduction the main change agenda for social work is outlined. This will
require ongoing consultation at the local and regional level. Given the relatively low
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turnover of social care staff within Sheffield Adult Social Care Services we have had
to work with the other Local Authorities in the sub region to develop the current
NQSW scheme as none of the 4 have sufficient numbers of new recruits to deliver
their own scheme successfully or cost effectively. This is also likely to be true for the
new arrangements for the assessed year in practice which will replace the NQSW
pilot. Within the council some consideration needs to be given to developing
consultation across adults and children’s social work services in relation to reform
requirements. Failure to do so could mean we have two very different approaches
developing. Through benchmarking the views of other local authorities in the region
we have found that many are going to consult on the reform requirements with
combined children and adults working groups. Within Sheffield we will:

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Approach Heads of Service to solicit their views to a combined approach
Develop ongoing consultation with services to explore the changes required to
practice teaching/development
Review training and career pathways in light of new requirements
Working with services and HR to establish the links between the new
framework and the Post Qualifying awards and progression
Work through the Practice Learning Alliance to review the framework for
practice teaching delivery and to explore the context of the partnership
arrangements as envisaged in the social work taskforce report and
subsequent action plan
Liaise with and advice the regional representatives of Skills for Care on
consultations with the technical groups working on the details of the reform
agenda
There will be much work over the next 2/3 years to achieve this step change for
social work and it will be vital that communications across the Portfolios and with HR
are ongoing and effective and that we give clear feedback to the sector skills council
and DCSF on how the reform agenda is progressing .
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Conclusion
The overall focus of the workforce strategy for 2010/11 is primarily two-fold:

To meet the needs of the changing workforce and the national drivers that are
pushing this agenda, be it for social care or social work and within this delivery
address the need for co-production and high level involvement of people who
use services.

To work as collaboratively as possible with a range of partners to promote
capacity building for the sector, achieve best value approaches to workforce
development and to establish standards for workforce development that
supports staff movement within the sector.
This strategy sits alongside the Sheffield People Development Strategy providing
some if not most of the detail of how we aim to move the workforce forward in 2010 11. It should be emphasised that the Sheffield People Development Strategy goes
beyond the remit addressed here, looking to community development and the
disappearance of the barriers between professionals, people who use services and
their communities for matters relating to workforce planning and development. This
strategy should be viewed as a serious contribution to the City Wide Strategy,
dealing for the most part with the specific requirements placed on the council and its
paid workforce.
Diane Whitlock
Workforce Development Manager – Social Care
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