Social care and the workforce have been featured more heavily in the public domain over recent months. Sadly, in the main, for all the wrong reasons.
For example, the latest Panorama programme focusing on social care showed, once again, people working in our sector who just shouldn't be – although it's important to note this programme did also show some of the kind, caring staff who need more airtime because they represent the majority of people working in our sector.
We also have seen Protecting our Parents, which has perhaps shown a more balanced picture of what really happens. Some heart-warming and exemplary examples of how to support older people having to make extremely difficult life choices with, unfortunately again, examples of what should not be happening – older people being patronised, told off and worst of all assumed not to have mental capacity should they dare to have a different view to the professionals.
And most recently, we have had the BBC coverage of the work Skills for Care, together with our partners in Health Education England and Skills for Health, is doing to develop the care certificate, one of the recommendations from Camilla Cavendish's review last year. Interestingly, while this is a certificate for staff working in social care and the health service, the majority of the 342 comments posted to the BBC's website, focused on social care.
As you might expect, they were a mixed bag of views, very mixed, which I think reflects the challenge facing us – there is not a consensus amongst the public about what good care looks like never mind how we ensure we achieve it at all times. I want to share a couple of comments, to reflect the range of views expressed:
"The way a society treats its elderly and most vulnerable citizens is a sign of how civilized it is."
"I'm 38 now, in 40 years I'll likely be strapped to a chair with a hole in the seat with tubes going in to my arms delivering required 'nutrition and medication'."
"In 2009 I was looking for a care home for my mother. The one I selected was committed to on the job training combined with some college work as appropriate. Over the ensuing four years, whenever I visited I had interesting conversations with young carers about their training. It was an uplifting experience to know that such dedication exists in the care profession."
Of course, we know this latter experience exists in bucket loads, far more than the horrors shown in Panorama exposes.
As part of the endless drive to raise standards, Skills for Care and the National Skills Academy for Social Care merged to become the single workforce and leadership organisation for social care. In setting out our vision as the merged leadership, management and workforce organisation, the challenge we must meet is how is our merged organisation going to work with our partners to drive the horror stories out of our sector, and achieve high quality care and support at all times for everyone?
From the Panorama programme and from the Francis and Cavendish Reports, it is obvious that no single solution is the answer. On its own the Care Certificate will achieve little without the right culture, ensuring we recruit and retain the right people, that workers and employers sign up to learning and development and that the right leadership and management pervades the whole organisation.
It is also obvious that our combined offer based on employer need and our work programmes offers the synergy, the connection and the one stop shop that the sector needs. The sector needs a joined up solution – our vision is to provide it.
One of my favourite authorities on leadership and management is Rosabeth Moss Kanter and in thinking about the vision for our merged organisation, I reflected on what she says:
"A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to be something more."
This has real resonance for me as the merged organisation develops, because we know it is about being stronger together, recognising that we are continually dealing with uncertainty as ideas and policies change, never more so than with the general election next year. Even now we know, for example, we need to achieve integration – but we don't know quite how this is going to happen, or even if we all mean the same thing when we talk about integration.
So our vision for our merged organisation is about working with employers to transform the quality of leadership and management so we have the right skills and values throughout the workforce to provide high quality care and support.
There are a number of principles that must underpin realising this vision:
Impact
Everything we engage in must make a positive difference to the quality and outcomes the workforce achieves, thereby the quality of life for people who need this workforce to support their independence.
Person centred
We focus on employers (of all types and sectors) and the workforce, because social care is a relational based, people business. All of our support and work with the sector must ultimately be about ensuring that it is the needs and aspirations of people who need care and support, and their carers that drive our work.
Value for money
Particularly because the vast majority of the funds for our programmes of work comes from the public purse. We must demonstrate that we are efficient and careful stewards of that money and that we can show at any time how it is being used for maximum outcome. We also want to be entrepreneurial in how we lever in non-government money where we can determine how this is invested in enhancing workforce, leadership and management activity.
Commitment
To working in partnership – systems leadership - because we can't do all this on our own. We have strong and effective partnerships with a whole range of organisations and individuals. We must build on this and constantly be alert to new relationships that need to be cultivated.
Optimism
Despite the challenges of the financial environment, the political landscape we have to navigate, trying to find solutions to a very diverse employer base and work with colleagues in other sectors who have different structures and opportunities, we must remain resilient, upbeat and hold our belief that what we do does make a difference.
Working together as one organisation, we will focus on culture through our combined work on the whole system approach to workforce – supporting exemplary leadership and management to shape how we attract, recruit, retain and develop the whole social care workforce. This will provide a one route holistic response needed to create a skilled, competent and confident workforce at each and every level so that we can all have increased confidence about the quality of care and support provided.
I am looking forward to working with all my colleagues, the board and sector partners in taking forward our merged organisation, building on the strengths of both and achieving that coherent leadership, management and workforce offer that the sector so rightly demands of us.
Sharon Allen is the chief executive of Skills for Care and the National Skills Academy for Social Care
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