6 Stakeholders and partners

E-learning is not an end in itself, and it can never be effective in isolation. An e-learning strategy for social care can only work if we create collaborative partnerships, both within the social care sector and also with our fellow stakeholders in education, workforce development and in health. We must also build on, rather than duplicate or stifle, existing initiatives in the sector.
SCIE and TopssEngland stakeholder groups include:
- service users, carers and their organisations
- social care staff in the statutory, voluntary and private sectors
- social care employers and managers in the statutory, voluntary and private sectors
- social care education and training providers across all sectors
- policy-makers and planners
- regulatory bodies
- government departments.
From a specific e-learning perspective, our key stakeholders include:
- service users, carers and organisations - who may be learners as well as educators/trainers or learning content providers/advisers
- social care staff at all levels and in all specialisms - who will be the principal learner group, and some of whom will also have training/education roles
- social care employers and managers (statutory, voluntary and private sector) - who will be the principal 'purchasers' of workforce training for their staff, and who will also have both learner and trainer/educator roles
- social care education and training providers - who include HE and FE institutions as well as statutory, voluntary and private vocational training providers
- health sector learning and workforce training organisations - some of which have a specific social care remit and all of which have a requirement for multi-professional and inter-professional training.
A number of potential key partner organisations represent the interests of these stakeholder groups, or have strategic interests in these areas, including:
- the LSC (nationally and regionally), and Sector Skills Councils for health (Skills for Health), for information technology (IT) (e-skillsUK) and for lifelong learning
- Becta, UfI/Learndirect, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI)
- Higher Education Funding Councils for England and Wales, JISC, the Higher Education Academy, including the Social Work and Policy Subject Centre (SWAP), Joint University Council - Social Work Education Committee (JUC-SWEC)
- HE and FE providers
- Trades Union Congress (TUC) Learning Services Department; Unison and other unions, British Association of Social Workers (BASW), Social Care Association (SCA), the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS)
- the Employers Organisation for Local Government (EO), the Improvement and Development Agency (I&DeA), Local Government Association (LGA)
- Local Education Authorities (LEA) Community, Adult and Lifelong Learning departments
- the National Association of Training Officers in Personal Social Services (NATOPSS - Learn to Care)
- practice learning providers and the Practice Learning Taskforce (PLTF)
- service user and carer organisations
- the NHSU and the NHS strategic health authorities and workforce development confederations
- Business Link and other organisations providing learning support to small and medium-sized enterprises (which covers most private and voluntary social care providers)
- the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and education and training accreditation bodies such as City and Guilds, the Open University and National Open College Network
- private sector e-learning organisations, including training providers and content developers
- the General Social Care Council (GSCC) as the regulators of social work education and training in England
- UK partner organisations such as the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education (SIESWE)
- in England: the DH and the DfES oversee social care; the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) oversees local authorities, which deliver and manage the delivery of local social services; the Department of Trade and Industry has an interest in workforce development for the 25,000 small and medium-sized enterprises that deliver social care across England.