The Social Care Commitment

Michelle Vinall: Skills for Care Locality Manager for Norfolk and SuffolkTel: 07794622668 Email: michelle.vinall@skillsforcare.org.uk

The Social Care Commitment

• White paper initiative ‘caring for our future’

• Improving care, and the public’s confidence in care

• Developed by employers, employees and people who need care and support

• A voluntary agreement on workforce quality

A sector united

Quality People, Quality Care

• Sign up to the seven “I will…” statements

• Employers promise to give their workers the development they need

• Employees promise to put their values into practice in their daily work

• Guidance and resources to support employers and employees

The employer commitment is a promise to:

Make sure staff understand safety and quality standards

Help staff develop their skills

Take responsibility for how staff work

Recruit staff who care

Provide thorough induction training

Support staff to put their commitment into practice everyday

Supervise staff properly

The employer commitment is a promise to:

Uphold dignity

Work co-operatively

Communicate effectively

Work responsibly

The employee commitment is a promise to:

Continue to learn

Treat People Fairly

Protect privacy

The employee commitment is a promise to:

Why should providers sign up?

• Potential to generate better workforce practices

• Raise care standards

• Act as a beacon of quality when choosing care • Easy to access

• Sector-wide suitability

What are the benefits to my organisation?• Improve dignity in care provision

• Helps providers to make care more personalised

• Attract more people with the rights skills and/or values to apply to work in the sector

• Employee sign up provides an excellent employee induction tool

• Improve employee morale

• Help reduce provider staff turnover rate

• Employee development plans contribute to evidence for the Care Certificate

What are the benefits to the workforce?

• 95% of providers who have signed up and made their commitment said sign up is straight forward

• 85% said they have already seen or expect to see an improvement in the quality of care they deliver

• 83% said it has lead or will lead to improvements to staff training and development

What are signed up providers saying?

Sign up can support providers in many ways ….

Evidence to support CQC inspection

NHS Choices profiles

Resources for signed up providers

• The employee and employer commitments in full

• Statement cards

• Supporting staff to make the Social Care Commitment

Resources for sign up employers

• A promise to keep the Social Care Commitment

- for staff, what the commitment means

and why it matters

• Your guide to making the Social Care

Commitment

- for staff, how to make the commitment

Other resources for workforce development

• Development plans for providers and their employees, actions and timeframes

• Links to specific resources to help providers fulfil each task, e.g • Finders, Keepers• Common Induction Standards• Common core principles for dignity

Employers said…

‘There are two main actions we’ve done to date. Firstly we included our Commitment as part of our entry to the local business awards which aim to celebrate excellence and achievement amongst local businesses. This demonstrates the things that we do well. We were finalists and having signed up helped our entry. Secondly, we now go through the employee ‘I will…’ promises with new recruits to helps them to understand the job and what we are asking of them.’

- Private sector domiciliary care provider with 75 employees

Source: ekosgen independent survey April 14

Employers said…

‘I plan to use it as a toolkit for the team. I will set them targets and challenges each month and then at the end of the month we can discuss their progress at our team meetings. It will be great to be able to praise them when we achieve the target and say ‘Yes! We did it!’. It will act as a good motivator and I can use it to prompt staff each month that they have agreed to meet these targets.’

- Private sector adult resident care provider with 30 employees

Source: ekosgen independent survey April 14

ConclusionsThe Social Care Commitment:

•Is a public promise from providers of adult social care to work towards providing quality care through quality people

•Can help commissioners in contracting quality services

•Outlines good fundamental practices and behaviours that all providers of adult social care need to be committed to.

•Supports providers to review their services to ensure they are:• Safe• Effective• Caring• Responsive to people’s needs• Well-led

www.thesocialcarecommitment.org.uk