With this issue focusing on changing perceptions of social care, Skills for Care shares the support and resources they have available to drive forward positive developments for the social care workforce.
Moving Up programme
Social care has a diverse workforce, with 26% of the workforce being from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic backgrounds. However, this same level of diversity isn’t seen at a senior level, with only 16% of managerial positions being held by people from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic backgrounds.
It’s really important that social care is a sector which people from all backgrounds can thrive in and reach senior positions in order to be a career of choice.
Skills for Care’s popular Moving Up programme is aimed at supporting managers and aspiring managers from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic backgrounds to take the next step in their careers.
It covers topics including personal branding, self-belief and identifying your own strengths and weaknesses. These are key attributes in developing and progressing in your career.
Find out more: https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/movingup
Creating an inclusive organisation programme
Skills for Care’s ‘Creating an inclusive organisation’ programme also aims to develop further diversity among the social care workforce.
The programme is primarily aimed at people from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic background and provides support and tools to help people tackle challenges they may have faced in the workplace.
It’s an eLearning programme which aims to develop everyone’s confidence to improve equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) across their organisation.
Encouraging men into careers in care
As stated in Skills for Care’s latest ‘State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report, this year there has been a slight increase in the number of men working in social care, from 18% to 19%.
However, women do still make up the vast majority of the workforce.
It’s vital to encourage more men to work in social care to change perceptions of the sector and to ensure the workforce represents the people it supports.
On the Skills for Care website, you can find blogs and articles discussing why it’s important to encourage more men into care, how to encourage more men to work in care, and case studies from men about why they love working in social care.
Recruiting younger people into care
Some employers may be unsure whether they can hire younger people, but hiring people aged 16 and 17 is not only legal it’s also beneficial for organisations. It’s vital that we start recruiting more younger people to begin a career in care to sustain the workforce of the future.
When recruiting people aged 16 and 17 there are considerations which need to be made around working hours, pay and learning and development. Having more younger people in your organisation will bring fresh ideas and energy and can help you to grow the leaders of the future for your organisation and the sector as a whole.
Find out more with Skills for Care’s guide to employing 16 and 17 year olds.
Developing digital ways of working
Digital technology has the power to transform services and provides adult social care with a huge opportunity. Technology also offers opportunities to help people maintain independence and improve outcomes using tech enabled care.
To continue driving social care forward and to make the care sector a career of choice it’s really important to keep updated with new digital innovations. As part of this, managers need to support their staff to feel digitally confident.
Throughout November Skills for Care is running a spotlight focused on improving digital confidence. This will include resources, learning opportunities and blogs and articles to help increase digital understanding and confidence.
Find out more: www.skillsforcare.org.uk/digitalconfidence
