The National Skills Academy for Social Care:
Services

The key products proposed for development by the Academy during its first three years of operation are:

Personalised care programmes

A new small employer programme for employers of personal assistants and small employers, including those controlled by users, wanting to offer innovative solutions and models of delivery to meet individual requirements. It will include the business skills required to be a responsible employer. The Academy will link nationally with the Cabinet Office sponsored Innovation Exchange which is encouraging third sector solutions to social care issues.
Two new commissioning programmes at national level, available regionally, to ensure that employers are able to contribute to and respond to community and individual needs effectively and efficiently:

for the public sector concerned with community level commissioning and how to deliver commissioning for individuals.
for individuals/family networks/brokers who would like to develop commissioning skills for themselves.

A new trainee scheme with equal status to local government, central government and health schemes. Intended to identify future leaders in any setting and give entrants a rounded experience of different types of employment. Entrants could be new to social care or existing staff, with an emphasis on increasing the diversity of people in leadership roles.
Identification and where appropriate commissioning, providing or accrediting programmes to inspire and develop the supervision, management and leadership skills of all levels of the workforce.
A specific programme at national level for the most senior managers in social care, including Directors of Adult Services and those aspiring to the role. This would be achieved partly through the reshaping of the current multi-agency leadership programme, which is due for revision and re-tendering in 2009.

A new national scheme to encourage quality in training provision through an accreditation scheme for associations and providers of training.
A complementary national scheme to identify and assure quality in trainers to support the drive to improve the delivery of teaching and learning, inside and outside the workplace.
A new programme of encouragement and support for employers who wish to have their in-house training accredited to national standards.
Identification and accreditation of materials offering distance learning support through a variety of media, including potentially Social Care TV.
New programme to evaluate the effectiveness of training and learning as components of good practice and contributors to positive outcomes.

A new programme with training providers to embed key skills development and assessment in level 2 care awards. This would reduce the assessment burden for employers and learners, and enable key skills deficits to be sensitively identified and resolved.
Progression schemes to enable care staff to progress into professional roles.
Signposting the funding available for training and for staff and leadership development.

A new recruitment and development programme ‘Men who care’. This will be a national campaign to encourage men into social care.
Care Ambassadors Plus.
This will be an extension of the current scheme developed by Skills for Care. We will extend the scheme to promote take up of 14-19 diplomas and apprenticeships through encouraging careers in social care.