There is a range of resources to support employers:

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

The continuing professional development of social care workers beyond their induction and initial training is an area of crucial importance for social care organisations and their staff, and for people using the services.

The Skills for Care CPD strategy applies to the whole social care workforce, across all its organisations and settings. It applies to all workers and managers in social care, including social workers, and encompasses all types of learning at all levels. It reflects a social development model, which values and promotes greater recognition of all work and roles within social care, paid and unpaid, and which enables flexible career pathways

Leadership & Management

Skills for Care's Leadership and Management strategy documents include a comprehensive set of ‘products' to enable managers across the sector to implement the recommendations.

These products are commended to all managers and leaders in social care including service users who are employers under direct payments schemes.

The above products are available from the Skills for Care website: www.skillsforcare.org.uk

Effective Supervision

High quality supervision has a crucial role to play in the development, retention, and motivation of the workforce, as well as being one of the most important drivers in ensuring positive outcomes for people who use social care services.

Skills for Care and the Children's Workforce Development Council teamed up to produce a step-by-step workforce development tool on providing effective supervision tailor-made for the job. It plugs an identified gap in the Leadership and Management Strategy for social care.

The above products are available from the Skills for Care website: www.skillsforcare.org.uk

The Value of Learning

A comprehensive guidebook The Value of Learning, developed by Skills for Care South West in conjunction with care home owners, is designed to assist employers in fostering a learning culture within their organisations.

The guidebook is the result of a project with a small number of small and medium care homes in the South West which resulted in a transformation of attitudes of owners/managers and their staff towards learning and development with a notable subsequent improvement in service delivery.

The project has led to a Learning Exchange Network, a locally delivered support network where care service managers/owners can share learning, exchange best practice, and receive updates on learning and development opportunities, national standards, and funding opportunities.

The Value of Learning is downloadable from southwest.skillsforcare.org.uk