Skills for Care and Development

“Are you well prepared to face the challenges and meet the demand for social care, children’s and young people’s services in the future?”

Who we are

Skills for Care and Development (SfC&D) is the UK Sector Skills Council for the Social Care, Children and Young People’s workforce. SfC&D operates as an Alliance of five UK partners and is represented in Northern Ireland by the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC). NISCC is the regulatory body for the social care workforce in Northern Ireland. NISCC leads SfC&D’s work in Northern Ireland with the network of employers, government bodies, voluntary organisations, independent providers, service users, carers and stakeholders from the sector, to plan for and develop the workforce to meet future needs.

Our devolved structure ensures that we can develop a workforce which meets the specific needs of services in NI whilst maintaining consistently high standards and sharing best practice across the UK. The voluntary and community sector, with almost 30,000 paid workers and around 75,000 volunteers – many of whom are involved in training, planning or delivering social care and children’s services - represents a significant proportion of our sector, therefore their involvement and contribution is vital.

The Social Care, Children’s & Young People’s Services Workforce in NI

• Around 200,000 people use services each year and demand is growing
• Around 50,000 people are employed in the sector
• At least 75% of the workforce is employed in the independent, private or voluntary sector
• Over 50% of the workforce are part-time workers

How we will support the sector to meet these challenges

SfC&D has established a Workforce Development Committee to co-ordinate projects to establish:

• the number of people who are likely to need services in the next 10-20 years;
• the type of care/support they are likely to need;
• how many workers will be needed to provide these services;
• the range of jobs we will need them to do;
• where these workers will come from; and
• what skills and training they will need to help them do their job well.

Committee members are key employers/representatives from the statutory, independent, private and voluntary agencies; education interests; government agencies and stakeholders from across the sector. These representatives provide advice on skills needs, workforce capacity and training provision for the sector. They also act as a contact between the committee and sector interests to ensure that SfC&D project groups can work with people and organisations within NI more effectively. The voluntary/community sector representatives on the committee are Roisin Foster (Regional Director for Leonard Cheshire in NI and member of the Association of Chief Officer of Voluntary Organisations) and Norman McKinley (Operations Director for British Red Cross in Northern Ireland).

Current Projects

In the next 3- 18 months SfC&D will:

• clarify the structure, size and location of the Social Care, Children’s and Young People’s workforce in NI.
• co-ordinate the ongoing Voluntary Community Sector project to assess skills demand for this part of the SfCD sector.
• develop a Sector Skills Agreements for the Personal Social Services and Early Years workforces - agreements between employers, SSCs and education providers on how to ‘shape’ the required supply of training and how to close skills gaps.
• review & develop standards, learning and qualifications – current projects include induction, leadership and management, sensory impairment, commissioning & contracting. Committee members will provide expertise and opinion from their networks to assist with developing suitable National Occupational Standards and Awards for the workforce in NI.
• develop electronic and printed materials to promote career choices and development opportunities in the sector.
• support implementation of the Personal Social Services Development & Training Strategy 2006-2016 – DHSSPS strategy setting targets for training and development for the workforce.

What does this mean for the sector?

The establishment of SfC&D means that the sector will gain:

• a means to identify and plan for skills and productivity needs;
• greater dialogue with government;
• greater impact on policies affecting skills and productivity;
• increased influence with education and training providers;
• potential opportunities to influence how money is invested in the workforce; and
• high quality careers information and clear career pathways, based on modern qualifications and current National Occupational Standards.

Getting involved with SfC&D

SfC&D is part of the Skills for Business Network which links Sector Skills Councils and helps to identify areas of common working. We also link with NICVA as the voluntary/community sector liaison with SSCs in NI and across the UK. A number of voluntary and community organisations are contributing to consultations and information sessions for workforce development and training in NI. Details of consultations and development work are published on the NISCC website www.niscc.info E-Bulletins from the SfC&D Workforce Development Committee are also available on the News Section of the site. You can also call us on 028 9041 7600 or email info@niscc.n-i.nhs.uk