Community Skills Development and Neighbourhood Workforce Planning
Overview
Community skills development and neighbourhood workforce planning – Early adopter / test sites
Skills for Care (SfC) is working on this project in partnership with; the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC), The Care Council for Wales (CCW) and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).
The coalition government vision for the ‘Big Society’, the pressures on resources to support social care, the aging population and the transformation agenda all require action across four inter-related dimensions of prevention, protection, personalisation and partnership. As part of the sector skills councils our role is to consider and promote good learning and development of skill that can help with this in the ‘workforce’ – this includes volunteers, citizen advocates and people who use services and carers. In 2009 SfC produced ‘Only a footstep away’. We are now working to develop this further into practical tools that people can use. The aim of the programme is to understand the skills that people in local communities have and how those skills can be enhanced and shared to empower people who require care and support, enabling the right people, in the right place, to get access to the right learning and development.
Aims for the sites
We are seeking a range of social care providers, commissioners and neighbourhood or community groups (and projects that are integrated with other sectors such as health, housing etc) who are engaged in or starting work on this topic and are willing to use the materials we have produced and are producing to help us develop them further by providing feedback on them and examples of them being put into practice.
Invitations which were circulated in December 2010 and January 2011 in England only and generated 14 sites and we now seek to supplement this with others from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A list and map of the current sites can be found here: http://g.co/maps/8taz
Projects will be considered which have a planned timescale between 3 and 18 months. We are not looking for projects which are being run specifically to test these materials, but for projects which are going ahead and can test them.
We are looking for groups and organisations that can:
- Effectively engage with individuals and groups and have communication tools in place
- Understand the current policy drivers
- (Skills development for) - Encouraging social action
- (Skills development for) - Empowering communities
- (Skills development for) - Opening up public services
And the role that skills developments and workforce development can play in this
- Identify particular priorities for their community
- Be inclusive of people and groups with different access requirements. Make contact with groups or individuals in danger of being left out.
- Engage with Skills for Care (and NDTi working with Skills for Care) to carry out an evaluation / impact assessment by providing feedback and comments on the materials and examples of them being used.
The Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC) is using its knowledge of the labour market in Northern Ireland to assist Skills for Care (SfC) in England with contacting suitable community groups or social care providers who may wish to become involved with a project aimed at Neighbourhood Workforce Planning. This project will involve testing out a set of practical tools/templates to develop a neighbourhood workforce plan and skills implementation plan. There is a small amount of money (up to 10K per organisation) available to support the testing of this toolkit. The NISCC act purely as a conduit in this process and the support will be delivered through SfC and their contractor; The National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi). At the same time projects will be running in Scotland, England and Wales. There has already been one other pilot site set up and underway in Northern Ireland. This will enable learning and support to be obtained from the established site.
In Northern Ireland there is a growing and increasing demand for services. This is largely due to the population growth. It is predicted that in Northern Ireland by 2033 the number of people aged 75 or over will have doubled. To address this demand it is envisaged that communities will be empowered to make decisions in relation to services themselves, and this project will aim to ensure that people who need care and support will be able to access this in a ‘well skilled’ and supportive neighbourhood.
Resources on offer to support this work
Skills for Care have produced the tool kit which will we hope sites will use and test through this work. Support in applying this toolkit, and drawing learning from the work, will be delivered through Skills for Care and their contractor; The National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi – www.ndti.org.uk ).
- NDTi can offer each site several days of face to face and virtual support between now and March 2012, which would include:
- Carrying out up to 3 face to face visits/meetings/workshops with each early adopter site
- Exploring and mapping the logic behind each community skills development project (face to face with stakeholders, but also back in the office, writing up etc)
- Working with early adopter site stakeholders to develop a simple/ practicable framework for measuring the changes they are aiming to bring about through the work
- Virtual support to early adopter sites by phone & email
Skills for care can provide some funding (up to £10,000 per site) to offset the costs of this activity. Mutual support from other early adopter sites across the UK will also be available, including via an online learning community that has already been set up for this purpose by Skills for Care.
How To Apply
If you are interested in quoting for the work of being a test site please submit a quote by completing the Application Form. Your quote should be received by 12 noon Monday 11 October 2011 in hard copy and electronically.
Questions about this work can be directed to Louise Hallsworth on 0113 245 1716 or communityskills@skillsforcare.org.uk
Project Management Office (Community Skills) , Skills for Care, 2nd Floor, West Gate, 6 Grace Street, Leeds LS1 2RP and electronically to: communityskills@skillsforcare.org.uk