Who we are
About us
The National Skills Academy for Social Care has been created by employers and employer-led organisations from right across the sector. The Skills Academy will work to boost the quality and quantity of qualified workers. It will provide honest, accurate and up-to-date advice and information about where to go for training, how to find out about funding for that training, and who some of the best trainers and training programmes are. It will emphasise leadership and the rewarding career opportunities throughout the care sector. It will mean businesses are better informed, employees are better trained, people receive better care and the adult social care sector is better prepared for the future.
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Background and Context
Adult social care services in England are facing an unprecedented collection of challenges. An increasing demand for services is coming in the face of a growing shortage of qualified workers. New policies allowing people to choose how and when they receive care are bringing a raft of changes for the people and businesses providing that care. Public perception of the sector is low, fuelled by concerns about the recent children’s services scandals, making attracting and keeping new workers difficult. And, England’s ageing population means demand is set to skyrocket, with as many as 1 million more workers needed by 2025.
The creation of the Skills Academy
The challenges facing the adult social care sector have been the focus of a series of reviews by Parliamentary committees, government departments and various businesses, research firms and other organisations. One common thread that wove through many of their recommendations was the creation of the National Skills Academy for Social Care.
Among those recommending this approach was Dame Denise Platt, the former Chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection, who in her 2007 report to the Department of Health called for the creation of the Skills Academy focusing on developing and promoting quality leadership within the adult social care. Better leadership, she suggested, was key to making the necessary changes and providing top-quality care.
Her views were echoed by the Skills Academy Steering Group, which was created in the wake of Dame Denise’s report to develop and launch the academy. The 15-member group – representing small, medium and large care employers and the Department of Health and the Learning and Skills Council – said the Skills Academy model would best serve the needs of the sector.
This model, the group said, would have the reach and influence it needs because it would be owned by a coalition of employers and sector skills agencies, providing independent leadership they would control. It would harness the skills, experience and particular focus of each of the agencies involved, the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. It would enable the collective resolution of longstanding issues of quality assurance and access to training, which require a national, regional and local approach and complement the agencies already involved in supporting and regulating care.
The purpose, vision and mission of the Skills Academy
Purpose – We aim to provide a world-class centre of development, learning support and training practice in the adult social care sector in England
Vision – We work to promote a growing workforce, attracted to the sector for the opportunities it holds and the values it espouses, with all in the workforce motivated by the desire to support people who use services in identifying their own needs and meeting them.
Mission – We will inspire those working in social care. We will work with training providers to ensure that they have access to excellent, quality-assured training and development opportunities and a proper career structure. And we will support those providing care and those providing learning and training with up-to-date, straightforward, clear and practical knowledge and guidance.
The nature of the Skills Academy
The Skills Academy is designed to be:
Authoritative: defining, collecting and disseminating knowledge and information about excellence in learning, training and providing social care.
Inspiring: motivating the workforce and sector to aspire to excellence through its communications, style of working and leadership. We will work in ways that others can emulate, enabling people to work in partnership with us, valuing their expertise, and demonstrating how co-production can produce huge and lasting benefits.
Reliable: delivering a range of products and services, in time, and to the highest standards, using processes and structures that reflect the very best business practices in our sector, and streamlining cumbersome bureaucratic processes and procedures.
Inclusive: tackling barriers to access to social care employment, providing opportunities for people in the sector to get involved with the development of the Skills Academy.
Brave: pushing boundaries in what needs to be done and take managed risks to make a real difference. We will enable people to be themselves as they work to raise the aspirations of each individual and the sector, mirroring the values that the very best adult social care practice embodies.
The aims of the Skills Academy
The Skills Academy will:
Identify and distribute information and knowledge about best practice in social care learning, development, leadership and management.
Raise the ambitions of the social care workforce so that social care services aspire to and provide excellence, enabling those who using and commissioning care to have the opportunity to live fulfilling and rewarding lives.
Enable people using services and carers to be trained and supported to contribute to training and learning development for the workforce.
Work with training providers to enable them to train and develop staff who can meet the expectations of people using social care.
Boost the profile and image of social care so that people want to work in the sector, and so that those who do work in it are given the status, respect and career opportunities that those using social care services need them to have.
The Skills Academy Board
The Skills Academy is being developed with the support of a 15-member group representing individuals, small, medium and large care employers and the Department of Health and the Learning and Skills Council.
The Board consists of:
Financial Support
The Skills Academy is set to receive £3m in funding from the Department of Health and £3m from the Learning and Skills Council over the next three years. As with the other National Skills Academies, the Skills Academy is then expected to become self-sustaining, with income generated by particular pieces of work and membership schemes.