Social care reform needs leadership at every level, says the National Skills Academy for the sector

The employer led National Skills Academy for Social Care has today supported the need for reform of social care as called for by the Care and Support Alliance in its letter to the Prime Minister. The letter from the group of charities highlights the need for political leadership, but there is equally a need to address leadership in the sector so that the quality of care itself improves as the system undergoes reform.

Diane Lawson, Chief Executive of the National Skills Academy, said: “It is clearly unacceptable that 800,000 older and vulnerable people are not able to access basic care and support. The government has put additional funding into homecare and while this is welcome and needed, this is only one aspect of an entire system that needs a complete overhaul in its approach to funding and development of leadership capacity."

“Leadership at every level of social care has been identified as a priority by the Department of Health during its recent engagement activity with the sector, and the National Skills Academy is working with government to develop a Leadership Strategy. Through our members and stakeholders we are identifying ways forward to ensure that the leadership, management and commissioning of social care forms a key aspect of the proposals that will underpin the social care white paper expected in the spring.”

-Ends- 

Editors’ Notes 

• The employer-driven National Skills Academy for Social Care focuses on leadership, management and commissioning and modelling excellence in learning, in adult social care.
• It is the first welfare-related Academy in the network of National Skills Academies which are employer-led centres of training excellence established by industry to create a world-class workforce by delivering the skills that employers need in each sector of the economy.
• The Skills Academy’s remit is to promote and support excellent learning and training for the 1.6 million workers and 21,000 employers in social care with a particular emphasis on small and medium-sized employers. Demographic changes mean the social care workforce is expected to rise to 2.5 million by 2025.
• The Skills Academy is led by a Board of employer representatives from across the statutory, private and not-for-profit sectors within adult social care.
• The Skills Academy’s Leadership Strategy will form part of the Health and Social Care White Paper due to be published in Spring 2012.
• For more information visit www.nsasocialcare.co.uk 

For more information please contact:
Caroline Bernard
0207 268 3288