E-learning for social care consultation | Consultation paper

Overview
Aims of this paper	1
The social care context	2
E-learning in social care	3
Limitations and constraints	4
The strategic context for e-learning	5
Stakeholders and partners	6
Principles and aims	7
Key action areas	8
The kit	8.1
The know-how	8.2
The subject materials	8.3
The technical systems	8.4
The organisational systems	8.5
Action plans	9
Higher education	9.1
Social care workforce	9.2
Research and evaluation	10
Next steps	11
Consultation process	12
Glossary
Acronyms
Acknowledgements
References

8.1 The kit

The current state of infrastructure provision in social care is very mixed. Students of the new social work degree, for example, are relatively well supplied, as higher education institutions and their funders have responsibility for the provision of hardware and connectivity for students on campus. However, infrastructure provision still varies between universities, and few have reached the stage of having e-learning facilities within all teaching and learning spaces (as opposed to collected together in 'computer rooms').

Once students move into the workforce, their access to hardware and connectivity becomes even more patchy: the plurality and diversity of the sector mean that provision varies greatly and benchmarking data is scant. It is probable that staff at different levels and in different specialisms will have different levels of provision, but again, detailed data is not available. Social care has no equivalent of the NHS national programme for IT (NPfIT), taking a sector-wide approach to infrastructure.