Social care managers who need to identify and improve staff that lack the right skills can now do so through an online resource.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence and Skills Care have set up an online service to help managers assess and improve their workers’ numeracy and communication skills. Stephen Goulder, (pictured), director of corporate services and workforce development at SCIE launched the Care Skillsbase service in London today.

Social care workers need basic numeracy communication skills to understand written instructions to administer medicine, to complete timetables and to fill out complaints procedures.

The online resource was unveiled by the two government bodies at the Skills for Care Conference.

It is free of charge and offers managers online assessment tools and guidance to help them to identify staff members that lack the required skills to carry out their jobs effectively, and guidance and resources to ensure they improve them.

Goulder said: “It is the responsibility of social care employers to make sure their staff have the knowledge and competences required to do their job. There is good evidence that many social care staff lack the skills to use information and communicate effectively.

"Care Skillsbase offers specially designed tools to help. The tools are quick, easy to use and, and do not require any specialist skills or expertise."

Chief executive of Skills for Care, Andrea Rowe, said: "Everyone working in social care needs to be to use information and communicate effectively in order to work safely and meet quality standards. Care Skillsbase supports the learning and staff throughout the employment lifecycle - from recruitment and induction to supervision and appraisal.

"It enables managers to discuss skills issues constructively with staff in a non-threatening way, and can also provide evidence for inspection in relation to staff development."

Included in the service is a skills check that can be downloaded by managers and given to staff, which takes between 10-15 minutes to complete, a manage skills section, which offers guidance on how to take action to deal with numeracy and communication skills issues, plus a directory of national and regional skills support.
It also has a compare standards tool, which helps managers to check their understanding of safety and quality against; CIS, NVQ and GSCC Codes of Practice, to decide what level of numeracy and communication skills their staff need.

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