SCTP news
Latest news from the partnership
The partnership is constantly working to identify more training opportunities for members, so please check this page regularly for anything new that may interest you.
This month the PCT will be involved in implementing the national clean your hands campaign. The Staff Development team will be working with the PCT to support them in the delivery of this very important message.
The campaign promotes improved hygiene generally, across healthcare settings, including hospitals, ambulances, clinics, health centres & peoples homes, in a bid to reduce infections. Further information about the campaign is available at clean your hands campaign.
Skills for Care
Skills for Care says major changes in care regulations allowing well trained 16-18 year olds to provide personal care will help recruit more young workers and help care businesses grow.
The Department of Health’s National Minimum Standards (NMS) for care used to state that ‘staff providing personal care to service users must be aged 18’ and Skills for Care have been campaigning to have this restriction lifted for young people with the right training and supervision.
The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) and the Department of Health have worked closely to develop a more flexible approach, allowing 16-18 year olds to provide personal care as long as they are suitably trained/competent and are appropriately supervised.
The new guidelines also make it clear that care homes must fulfill appropriate regulations and the person who receives the care must have their choices respected as far as possible regarding who performs the task for them.
Care workers under 18 who want to deliver personal care must have completed or be undertaking the Apprenticeship in Health and Social Care and have satisfied their line manager of their competence to carry out these tasks.
“This is a very significant change in the regulations governing how care workers under 18 can deliver personal care and is a reflection of the rapid growth of the Apprenticeship in Health and Care that is producing well trained young workers,” says Skills for Care CEO Andrea Rowe.
“This flexible approach to the regulation means that the dignity and safety of people who use services is balanced against the aspirations of young social care workers to play a full role in their establishments.
“It removes unnecessary barriers to recruiting and retaining young staff when the recruitment and retenstion of staff is a massive challenge for our sector especially as we estimate we will need at least 2 million care staff by 2025.
“It will also help employers recruit young workers into our sector and help retain them, as they will now be able to carry out the full range of duties based on their competence not just their date of birth.”
National Minimum Data Set
For all organisations accessing NVQ awards, including Induction and LDQ through the Salford Care Training Partnership, it is a condition that partners have completed the National Minimum Data Set for Social Care establishment data.
National Minimum Data Set will make online AQAA returns easier for employers. A new update to the National Minimum Dataset Social Care (NMDS-SC) will make it easier for employers to fill in their annual quality assurance assessment (AQAA).
The new National Minimum Data Set Social Care function means employers can download a single page report which CSCI registered care agencies and nursing agencies can use instead of filling in the workforce section of CSCI. impending revised AQAA's which will be shortly coming into use.
Read about the update to the National Minimum Data Set system
The bulk upload tool has been used by Allied Healthcare to upload 11,000 worker details
Briefing number 6 - now available. This briefing looks at issues affecting workers length of service in the sector as a whole and the length of time in their current roles. The next briefing 7 will focus on the voluntary sector.
There are 2 new reports available to employers. These are the training needs analysis (TNA) report and the parent organisation report.
The training need analysis report provides employers with a detailed analysis of their workers qualifications by key variables including job role, age, gender ethnicity, employment status and aims to help them understand their own workforce and their training needs.
In addition partners who hold a National Minimum Data Set - Social Care reference number as a result of having completed the National Minimum Data Set - Social Care questionnaire before 1 April 2008 must fully update their establishment data before accessing training. This can be done via the National Minimum Data Set - Social Care website. Skills for Care will no longer accept paper based returns. We can arrange for access to one of our PC's for organisations requiring this support.
We would recommend that all partners organistations also complete employee data.
If you have any queries about National Minimum Data Set - Social Care please contact the National Minimum Data Set - Social Care helpdesk on 0845 8730129.
Mental Capacity Act - new information
From 1 April 2009 the deprivation of liberty safeguards will come into force. This is an amendment to the Mental Capacity Act 2005. This will affect people in care homes registered under the care standards act 2000.
The staff development team will be responding to this by providing free training.
For background information read: Mental Capacity Act - a brief outline.
We are providing:
- Mental Capacity Act - conference "Decision makers"
- DOLS for Decision Makers
In order to secure a place on the DOLS programme (coming soon) you must have already undertaken the Mental Capacity Act Conference training
To attend the Mental Capacity Act Conference please complete the nomination form.
New training materials
New training materials produced by the Department of Health for Mental Capacity Act 2005 are available in the Training Resources library. Please see the list of books and DVD's on offer in the resources list.
Recent IIP achievements for partnership members
Congratulations to Home Focus and Care Direct who are the latest partners to be awarded IIP status. To find out which other partners have achieved IIP through the programme, and how it could benefit your organisation, please see the pages on Investors in People.
Please take some time to look at the North West Action Plan (see below) and forward any comments you may have to Julie.Webster@skillsforcare.org.uk
Downloadable documents
- Sector Skills Agreement briefing (Adobe PDF format, 306kb)
- Draft Sector Skills Agreement - North West Action Plan (Microsoft Word format, 80kb)
- Skills for Care Sector Qualifications Strategy briefing (Microsoft Word format, 57kb)
- Good Practice in the Employment of Migrant Workers conference (Adobe PDF format, 331kb)
If you are unable to view documents of these types, our downloads page provides links to viewing software.
This page was last updated on 31 July 2008
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