This year, CareTech Foundation worked with three Partnerships that increase skills, resilience and employment progression.
Access Social Care
An online solution that is changing the landscape in accessing health and social care.
Access Social Care’s programme offers free legal advice to people with social care needs, broadening the range of social care content on the chatbot, and then train care workers to utilise it.
The programme’s focus on working with care workers will enable Access Social Care to develop this tool for the 1.5 million people who work in social care in England, building skills and knowledge about the legal frameworks that govern their work.
CareTech’s support has enabled high levels of user testing and development of the chatbot. The AccessAva Chatbot is now available 24/7 and free to use. It tells users about the law and helps them access further help. It is supported by a series of resources, designed to help users and the people they care for think about relevant issues.
The Social Care Leaders Scheme:
Still in early stages of development, The Social Care Leaders Scheme seeks to provide a national scheme to attract, train, develop and retain graduates into the social care sector. Its initial focus will be to help address the shortage of talent at Registered Manager level, a post which has been identified as crucial for attracting and retaining quality staff. This will directly improve the quality of care and support provided. But the longer-term aim is to recruit and support individuals capable of achieving the most senior leadership roles across the sector. The Social Care Leaders Scheme’s purpose is to attract and develop up to 500+ talented and inspirational new leaders from outside the sector every year.
A pilot project proposes to recruit and train 300 such leaders over the course of two intakes.
The Scheme has been developed with and commands the support of the social care sector, with its Steering Group members including Care England, the National Care Association, the National Care Forum, and the Institute for Health and Social Care Management.