SSKS

Paper reporting on a knowledge review carried out to pinpoint what is known about effective working with challenging and disruptive situations in residential care.

Resource created for workers working with young people to help them make the most of contact with the media, local and national, when talking about their experiences in care.

Paper looking at the challenges facing professionals in health and social care in dealing with service users with dual diagnosis, the co-existence of substance misuse and mental health problems.

A SCIE briefing presents the provision of care to terminally ill older people aged 65 and over within care homes settings (personal care and nursing).

In 2003 the Department of Health introduced a new qualification for social workers. Previously a diploma, for the first time the social work qualification became a three-year degree course, a move which reflected the difficulty and professionalism of the job. Also for the first time, universities and colleges offering the degree were required to involve service users and carers in the design and delivery of the programme.

Paper summarising the policy literature and research concerning the ways, benefits and problems of involving patients in the planning of discharge to community or intermediate care.

In this position paper, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) sets out a skills and qualifications framework that should support practice learning, both in the new degree and across social care organisations. We focus on ways of supporting those whose task it is to assess practice in the workplace ('practice assessors’). We also look at employers’ opportunities for organisational development, improved practice standards and human resource development (HRD).

Paper explaining and discussing the concept of co-production, the idea that users of adult social care services should be recognised as people possessing assets and skills which can be employed to help improve services rather than simply seen as passive recipients of services.

A position paper offering a practice framework for social care practitioners to allow the greater participation of 'seldom heard' groups in the social care services available to them. The paper considers four groups in particular, homeless people with addiction problems, black and minority ethnic people, people with communication impairments and people with dementia.

Foster children have difficult early lives. Their needs are great, their educational performance can be poor, their childhoods in foster care and out of it are often unstable. In their adult lives they are at greater risk than others of a wide variety of difficulties. These 'facts' have led some to conclude that the state is not an adequate parent.