A social care workforce that reflects our communities will serve them better
Councils aspire for their workforce to reflect the people and communities who draw on services, care and support.
Widening participation in the adult social care workforce supports us with this aspiration.
Consequently, the LGA and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, as Partners in Care and Health, have published ‘Diverse by design: a workbook for adult social care’.
This workbook can help officers and cabinet members responsible for adult social care, and those responsible for equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), identify improvements so that the workforce better reflects, and so better serves, our local communities.
It can also support councils in England with the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) new assurance framework for adult social care, by enabling leaders and managers to evidence how they are promoting EDI in their service, including for their staff.
This is something CQC will check during inspections.
Building on the corporate ‘Diverse by design guide’ published by the LGA in 2021, the workbook sets out 15 elements for EDI that are fundamental to helping to embed fair values, systems and behaviours in the workplace.
These elements can be considered in any order and at a pace to suit individual organisations’ workplace priorities. One step at a time, the workbook enables council employers to champion and implement change and embed the practice of inclusion.
For example, element one focuses on data. Being clear with what you want to achieve in being a more inclusive organisation will help you to decide the data you need to generate insight and drive action.
The elements also cover how to talk about equality and diversity, rethinking recruitment processes, having role models, and creating and engaging staff networks.
Knowing where to start with EDI can seem daunting, so the workbook includes a self-assessment tool to help councils identify their baseline.
Employers can measure their organisation against the 15 elements and assess the extent to which the workforce has been engaged as stakeholders in an inclusive workplace environment.
‘Diverse by design: a workbook for adult social care’ provides a framework that will support council employers to articulate strengths in EDI practice and identify areas for organisational improvement.
It seeks to support councils to move beyond compliance and build inclusivity into the culture of the adult social care workforce.
New support for unpaid carers
Demonstrating support for unpaid carers is a key criterion for councils preparing for assessments of their adult social care services by the Care Quality Commission.
The LGA and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, as Partners in Care and Health, are developing a new resource which we hope will serve as a handy guide to the key principles and duties placed on councils by the Care Act 2014 towards the many people who provide unpaid care to those affected by ill-health or disabilities.
The Care Act 2014 represented a historic step forward, for the first time placing unpaid carers on the same footing as the people they care for and giving them statutory rights to things such as assessment and support.
‘Handy summary: the Care Act and unpaid carers’ will bring together the salient points in one place and will be a useful point of reference for anyone keen to refresh their understanding about what the Care Act has to say about unpaid carers.
The guide will be available soon and, if you are reading this at the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Bournemouth, you can find out more from the Partners in Care and Health stand there (D30).