So where can people find examples of the good, the inspiring and the best? And what can be done about perceptions? For social care, you could start by looking at Skills for Care’s website where each year our Accolades winners are listed. This year, our Accolades awards evening happens to be on Thursday night this week (10 March, in Birmingham), at a ceremony directly after our annual conference (on integration), where our shortlisted candidates will have gathered to see who has won and why, and who picks up the coveted top award - the Winner of Winners Accolade.
Last year, Leeds City Council took the top prize. They had worked in partnership with Job Centre Plus, Barnsley College and local providers to develop a ‘We Care Academy’ to attract, recruit and retain people with the right values to work in social care. They had combined three initiatives (Skills for Care’s I Care...Ambassador service; a Sector-Based Work Academy; and the Health and Social Care Apprenticeship Programme) and developed a two week training programme specifically designed for the ‘We Care Academy’ candidates, each of whom went on to a six week placement. All candidates were supported on a weekly basis throughout the placement by the college, the project co-ordinator as well as the placement manager and this level of support has contributed to high levels of retention of candidates in adult social care – fixing a real bug-bear in the social care sector.
This was an example of integrated thinking but there are so many more. Stockport Council’s Reablement and Community Home Support team (REaCH) also won an award for their pioneering work offering end of life care that was truly centred on the needs of people in the last weeks of their life. Working across both health and social care, the joint service provided person-centred planning of care through 16 Assistant Practitioners who closely worked with health professionals including GPs and district nurses, enabling people to die in the chosen place – often at home – with family around them. Feedback from staff and families was tremendous with families saying ‘they wouldn’t have been able to stay with their wife, son, daughter without this care and they would have gone into hospital without the flexibility from the team who work really well together’.
Skills for Care have developed many practical resources for the workforce – most of them are free - just visit www.skillsforcare.org.uk search for topics – and help us spread the positivity around.