The purpose, vision and mission of the Skills Academy
Purpose – We aim to provide a world-class centre of development, learning support and training practice in the adult social care sector in England
Vision – We work to promote a growing workforce, attracted to the sector for the opportunities it holds and the values it espouses, with all in the workforce motivated by the desire to support people who use services in identifying their own needs and meeting them.
Mission – We will inspire those working in social care. We will work with training providers to ensure that they have access to excellent, quality-assured training and development opportunities and a proper career structure. And we will support those providing care and those providing learning and training with up-to-date, straightforward, clear and practical knowledge and guidance.
Our Values
The Skills Academy is designed to be:
Authoritative: defining, collecting and disseminating knowledge and information about excellence in learning, training and providing social care.
Inspiring: motivating the workforce and sector to aspire to excellence through its communications, style of working and leadership. We will work in ways that others can emulate, enabling people to work in partnership with us, valuing their expertise, and demonstrating how co-production can produce huge and lasting benefits.
Reliable: delivering a range of products and services, in time, and to the highest standards, using processes and structures that reflect the very best business practices in our sector, and streamlining cumbersome bureaucratic processes and procedures.
Inclusive: tackling barriers to access to social care employment, providing opportunities for people in the sector to get involved with the development of the Skills Academy.
Brave: pushing boundaries in what needs to be done and take managed risks to make a real difference. We will enable people to be themselves as they work to raise the aspirations of each individual and the sector, mirroring the values that the very best adult social care practice embodies.
Collaborative: We will see those who provide care, those who receive care, and those who provide learning as equal partners in the development of our work. Our products will be co-created with our end-users
Enabling: We believe that those receiving, commissioning and providing care should be enabled to bring their personalities, individuality and knowledge to the process; we will reflect these beliefs in all our work.
Responsive: We will listen to employers, including people who use services and carers; they will be our core members who will help guide and steer our development
The Aims of the Skills Academy
The Skills Academy will:
Identify and distribute information and knowledge about best practice in social care learning, development, leadership and management.
Raise the ambitions of the social care workforce so that social care services aspire to and provide excellence, enabling those who using and commissioning care to have the opportunity to live fulfilling and rewarding lives.
Enable people using services and carers to be trained and supported to contribute to training and learning development for the workforce.
Work with training providers to enable them to train and develop staff who can meet the expectations of people using social care.
Boost the profile and image of social care so that people want to work in the sector, and so that those who do work in it are given the status, respect and career opportunities that those using social care services need them to have.