staff development

Skills for care and development: sector skills assessment (Scotland)

Assessment primarily developed using Scottish data compiled by Skills for Care and Development, using a range of key data sources, including the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the Scottish Employers Skills Survey and the Care Commission‟s annual returns. A series of focus groups and strategic interviews was held during 2009/10 to ascertain the views of stakeholders on the current and future skills needs of the sector in Scotland.

Workforce Solutions

A range of elearning resources developed by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to assist employers in meeting the expectations of the workforce development and registration agendas for the social services sector. Some are focused on supporting the individual employee to plan and progress their own learning and development, and others are intended for employers to support them in developing the workforce they need now, or may need in the future.

Now it's personal: personal advisers and the new public service workforce

Providing tailored one-to-one support to help people back into work has been central to the UK Government's reform of the welfare system. This report argues that a new examination is needed on the role of personal advisers. The report is based on focus groups with service users, in-depth interviews with advisers, surveys of personal advisers and employment providers and a review of the literature. Qualitative analysis is presented to show changes in the ratio of Job Centre Plus advisers to the number of interviews they conducted since the recession began.

’Strengths’ Assertive Outreach: A Review of Seven Practice Development Programmes

Assertive outreach primary aims to provide specialist services for people disengaged from traditional approaches of mental health services, but very little attention has been paid to how such services can develop. The Practice Based Evidence consultancy engaged with seven assertive outreach teams in England to implement an approach to practice development that focuses on team-working and adopting a specific strengths approach to its model of practice. This article summarises some of the findings and puts forward strengths-based recommendations to develop assertive outreach practice.