Workforce Matters is the workforce planning and development arm of Scottish Care. As well as sharing relevant and up to date information about workforce and learning opportunities across the country, we also want to know more about your organisations learning and development needs, particularly those relating to regulatory, Care Inspectorate and SSSC requirements.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about your organisational workforce needs or would like further information about learning and development opportunities available to Scottish Care members.
Caroline Deane – Workforce Policy & Practice Lead
News and Events
SSSC Registrant Roadshow: Dundee – Wednesday 4th December 8:30pm, Compass House, 11 Riverside Road, Dundee, DD1 4NY
Learn more about the journey and future of SSSC registration, Fitness to Practice and how the SSSC can help with continuous learning and development by attending this event.
Further information can be found on the SSSC website or by following the link below.
Palliative and End of Life Care in Dementia: Training for Front Line Staff – Tuesday 10th December 9:30am – 4:30pm, Radisson Blu, The Royal Mile, 80 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TH,
This one-day programme is designed to support the development of health and social services staff to improve the quality of palliative and end of life care experienced by people with dementia and their families and carers. The closing date for applications is 12th November.
Scottish Care’s Homecare Day – Wednesday 4th December
Building on the success of the previous two events Scottish Care is pleased to bring Homecareday 19 – a day to celebrate the best of care at home and housing support services across Scotland and wider afield.
Care Inspectorate Event: 7th Annual Care of Older People in Scotland Conference – Thursday 12th December 2019, Wheatley Academy, Edinburgh
The 7th annual care of older people in Scotland conference focuses on the challenge of delivering excellent care. How can this be managed in the context of an older population growing larger annually, rising expectations about care quality, a wider knowledge of care rights and the acute pressures created by increased resource demand?
This is an online event so please join us and read about the wonderful work that we will be highlighting on Scottish Care’s webpage and across Twitter on the 4th December.
A Human Rights Charter for Technology and Digital in Social Care
Over the last year Scottish Care and partners have been developing a human rights-based Charter for Technology and Digital in Social Care. This work has included developers and designers, providers and practitioners, residents and citizens who use social care supports. This guidance reflects on each of the 17 statements and provides suggestions on how they can be used to support the human rights of individuals and communities in the use of technology and digital in social care.
The guidance can be found by clicking the button below.
Updated guidance to support the real living wage commitment for adult social care workers
Please click on the button below to view a letter from Ms Freeman, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport and Cllr Peter Johnston, COSLA Health and Social Care spokesperson, with updated guidance on the shared commitment to support payment of the real living wage to everyone delivering adult social care in Scotland.
Joint guidance from SSSC and the Care Inspectorate around using third party organisations to carry out recruitment checks
Using third party organisations to carry out recruitment checks can save time and effort, SSSC and the Care Inspectorate have released joint guidance confirming that they are happy with this approach.
Some of the essential checks employers carry out as part of the recruitment process are:
- Right to work in the UK checks
- Identification checks
- References
- Qualification checks
Employers must always carry out their own disclosure checks and ensure they have satisfied themselves with the robustness of the third party organisations systems and processes.
Care Inspectorate Improvement Strategy 2019 2022
Heather Edwards, Interim Head of Improvement Support at the Care Inspectorate has written a great blog introducing the refreshed improvement strategy 2019 – 2022. Please follow the links provided below to read Heather’s blog on the need for this strategy and the impact it will have on the delivery of care services and the strategy itself.
Macmillan at Work – Guidance to support staff affected by Cancer
Macmillan have produced a really useful leaflet for organisations giving guidance on how best to support staff members who may be affected by Cancer.
You can access this leaflet by clicking on the link below.
Nursing
RCN Nurse of the Year
The search has begun for the 2020 winner of the nursing profession’s most prestigious accolade RCN Nurse of the year.
The deadline for entries is 17th January 2020 and the winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on 8th July 2020.
Exploring and developing Palliative and End of Life Care SCQF 7
The content of the course is based on the NHS Education for Scotland Palliative and End of Life Care Framework at Skilled Level.
For more details and /or informal discussion about the module please contact:
Jacqui Allison Perth College UHI email: [email protected]
Telephone: 01738 877601
The new Deadline for Care and Support Workings in Care at Home and Housing Support to apply for SSSC Registration is 13th December 2019.
Guidance for employers to assist supporting their social care workers in care at home and housing support to register with SSSC
The SSSC have produced a series of new guides for employers for use in supporting care and support workers when they apply for SSSC registration.
Supporting Improvement Learning in Scotland’s Social Services
Free SSSC event in Glasgow for social care workers who lead improvement activity.
26th November at Renfield Training and Conference Centre, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JP between 10am and 4pm.
This is a workforce development day and will discuss areas including practice guidance, establishing improvement learning support groups and simple improvement techniques.
For further information please follow the link below:
Healthy Working Lives – NHS Funding available
Healthy Working Lives is a very useful website that gives access to information and training courses for the social care workforce and has funding available from the NHS. Mentally Healthy Workplace training has been developed by Healthy Working Lives specifically for managers and supervisors. This course is delivered through blended learning and before attending you must complete the Mentally Healthy Workplace e-learning course.
Stay in Scotland Campaign, helping EU Citizens to remain in Scotland
The Scottish Government have developed guidance for employers to support EU Citizens and employers with EU staff.
Use the Flexible Workforce Development Fund to support Career Opportunities
The Scottish Funding Council have released guidance around the use of the flexible workforce development fund. They have confirmed that qualifications in social services, including those which meet SSSC registration requirements, are eligible.
Modern Apprenticeship funding available through Skills Development Scotland
We are pleased to advise that Skills Development Scotland funding has been allocated to training providers for Modern Apprenticeships and this includes funding for staff who are aged over 25
Workforce Groups
Our Workforce Groups each run quarterly throughout the year and, as ever, we are really keen to have the involvement of our frontline colleagues and more provider participation. Details of the next dates are listed below:
Joint Scottish Care/SSSC Regulatory Forum
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 21st January 2020 between 10.30am and 1pm. This meeting will take place at Baillieston Community Care, Parkhead School House, 135 Westmuir Street, Glasgow, G31 5EX.
The Regulatory Forum explores how regulation of our services impacts upon them and our workforce. SSSC, who co-chair, advise and guide on new initiatives with providers being able to highlight challenges and solutions on topics such as registration, SVQ, qualifications and training among many others. We are also delighted to welcome Liz McPake from the Care Inspectorate who will be available to answer questions around improvement, health and social care standards and inspection requirements. More input from frontline colleagues and providers can only increase our effectiveness, so please come along.
Scottish Care/SSSC Promoting Excellence in Dementia Group
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 14th January 2020 between 10:30am and 12:30pm. The venue has still to be confirmed.
This group allows anyone with an interest in the care of people living with dementia to explore the Promoting Excellence Framework, training opportunities, best practice and hear updates from several different types of services on how they are encouraging and implementing the Framework within their own organisations. It is always great to have people involved in the direct delivery of dementia care and hear the challenges and successes experienced daily in their work.
Leadership, Learning and Improvement Group
At our last meeting we had a great discussion about the format of future meetings, consensus still supports the idea that the group will be more self-supporting and that a less ‘formal’ format would be appropriate – i.e. No agenda, chair, mins etc.
The group agreed that a format based loosely round the principles of Action Learning Sets would be the way forward. For those if you not familiar with action learning please see some background information below.
Briefly this will involve:
• One person bringing a ‘wicked issue’
• The group listening , without interruption, to the person presenting their issue
• The use of open questions to gather more data
• The group discussing potential options whilst the presenter listens in
• Actions being identified that may offer change
• The group is updated at the next meeting as to the impact /outcomes of the actions
People felt that this would offer the insights and support that people value most about being in a space with colleagues from across sectors and also supports the group getting to know more about the skills held within the group.
We are always looking for more people to come along, particularly frontline colleagues so please do get in touch.
Scottish Care Palliative and End of Life Care Group – for care home & care at home organisations
The next meeting will take place on 27th November 2020, 2 – 4pm at Renfield St Stephen’s Centre, 260 Bath Street Glasgow G2 4JP.
We are always looking for more people to come along, particularly front line colleagues.
We greatly appreciate the support of those organisations who have previously hosted our Workforce Groups, with thanks to those hosting the upcoming meetings.
If you would like more information about any of these forums please contact [email protected]
Resources
Equal Partners in Care Resource Updated
SSSC have refreshed and updated the Equal Partners in Care (EPiC) learning resource in response to the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016.
This was done in partnership with NHS Education for Scotland and a wide range of stakeholders, including carers and carer organisations, to make sure EPiC is a practical and engaging resource that supports the workforce to support carers.
EPiC is for health and social care staff and will help you (and the staff or students you support) to have better conversations and interactions with carers. The aim is to make a positive difference and improve outcomes for carers and the people they care for.
SSSC have developed a resource for care providers around supervision
This presentation from SSSC provides a framework to help facilitate discussions with staff around effective supervision.
SSSC have developed a new tile on their online system MySSSC
This tile is called “What’s new in your online system MySSSC” and will give information around planned work to improve the system and any updates and changes made. The information will also detail how the changes will affect registered workers, employers and people applying for registration.
SSSC Career Pathways Website
The SSSC have developed a fantastic new website dedicated to promoting a career in social care with career stories from those currently working in care. This website looks to highlight the #lifechangingwork that those working in social care do and to promote social care as a sector with positive career choices and opportunities.
NOS Navigator / Skills sets
This online resource is there to support employers, managers and staff members to identify the most appropriate SVQ units to undertake. The NOS Navigator is a simple and easy to use tool to help navigate around the national occupational standards for social care services.
The SSSC Learning Zone
The SSSC Learning Zone is an extremely useful resource for keeping your practice up to date. It includes free to use learning apps covering subject areas such as dementia, adult protection and medication. There is also a career development toolkit which may prove useful to members keen to develop career pathways within their organisations.
SSSC News
Keep up to date with all SSSC related news, events and resources at SSSC News “The online magazine for Scotland’s social services.”
Last Updated on 12th December 2019 by Shanice
