9.2 Social care workforce

76. Our ultimate vision for e-learning in social care is to develop a high proportion of the workforce capable of using ICTs to update their knowledge and skills continually in order to deliver an improved service for users and carers. Achieving this is a long-term task and requires significant inputs from a range of stakeholders in all our key action areas.

77. Infrastructure in the social care workforce

    The diversity of the social care workforce, with a mixture of provision from statutory, voluntary and private sectors, and over 25,000 employers in the sector, means that, unlike in the NHS, a sector-wide approach to supporting ICT infrastructure is not in place.

78. Information on the state of hardware and connectivity is scant, and an initial priority is to establish some benchmarking data upon which to build. Understanding what infrastructure - both hardware and connectivity - is available to which practitioners is a prerequisite to planning provision. An audit of sector capacities in this area is proposed, and it is possible that existing reporting mechanisms such as the Delivery and Improvement Statements required from councils with social services responsibilities by the DH could be extended to include ICT infrastructure and connectivity data.

79. Content development for workforce training and education

    E-learning content for the social care workforce is in its infancy. Some providers are addressing the need, but awareness is limited, and it is hard therefore for providers to stimulate demand. Content needs to address several distinct but overlapping areas: basic skills, induction, vocational qualifications - including National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) - in-service training and continuing professional development. The learner profile in each of these areas will be different, and the approach must vary accordingly.

80. Learning needs assessments should be conducted on a regional basis for the sector, so that subsequent content development initiatives are co-ordinated across a mix of providers, and are learner driven rather than product driven. The aim is to encourage a mixed economy of provision. SCIE itself will have a role in commissioning the development of e-learning materials in response to recognised need, and commercial providers will also have a significant role to play in serving the market.

81. It is important that e-learning strategy in social care supports the implementation of quality and technical standards and specifications for content. Interoperability, accessibility and usability must be requirements, as must a demonstrable understanding of instructional design and an innovative pedagogical approach.

82. We also need to ensure that content is developed in line with national qualifications frameworks, occupational standards and regulatory requirements. E-learning in social care needs to be part of a consistent national credit accumulation and transfer system. This system is an important way to provide incentives for learners and for employers, by making explicit the value of learning. This will also enable learners to plan future career progression and understand what learning is most appropriate for them. We will need to work closely with partners such as the QCA and with City and Guilds and others who accredit qualifications for social care.

83. Skills development: workers and trainers

    Research suggests that parts of the social care workforce need support in acquiring basic skills. Basic skills include literacy (including ESOL) and numeracy. These skills form the foundation for further development of vocational skills. This must be preceded by thorough scoping, feasibility studies and learning needs assessments. Partners in the learning and skills and adult and community learning fields such as Learndirect are already addressing the provision of basic skills development through e-learning. There is potential for partnerships with social care organisations at regional and local level to ensure that this existing provision is made available to social care workers. There is also further potential for partnership with the NHSU, LSCs and FE colleges in the provision of basic skills training.

84. The e-learning training needs of educators/trainers in social care - whether in voluntary, statutory or private organisations, offering basic skills training, vocational training or continuing professional development - are fundamentally the same. They all require support in:

    • developing and using high-quality content
    • understanding how people learn online
    • understanding learner diversity and the principles of inclusive learning
    • planning and managing online events and places (e-moderating)
    • planning and managing online assessment (e-assessment).

    The Improvement and Development Agency for local government (I&DeA) has begun some initiatives in these areas, but there is no co-ordinated social care-specific provision across the sector. Educator support is best provided via regional and local networks, and the Learning Resource Centres currently being piloted by TopssEngland are a possible conduit for workplace educator support programmes.

85. Delivery systems and platforms for workforce training and education

    Some delivery platforms and systems already exist within the sector. For example, some councils with social services responsibilities have their own VLEs, as do most HE institutions delivering the social work degree. However, at present there is no co-ordination in procurement at either regional or national level, nor any clear sense of what kinds of systems might best suit the sector. Solutions might range in ambition and scope from:

    • repository platforms - these could provide quality e-learning content for social care educators and trainers to use in their teaching
    • VLEs - these could support the interaction between educator and learner, including content delivery, assessment, communications, tracking, tutor support and curriculum mapping
    • MLEs/learning management systems - these could support the whole range of information systems and processes that contribute directly or indirectly to learning and learning management; for example, including student registration and accreditation, as well as VLE functions
    • sector portals - these could provide learning management systems functions and in addition capture workforce development data; for example, learning needs assessments, skills audit and skills gap analysis on a local, regional or national basis, providing a central reference point for services for learners, educators, training providers and employers right across social care.

86. Delivery systems that are targeted to specific stakeholders within e-learning - for example, that are aimed mainly at supporting education providers, or mainly at learners, or that target specific specialisms at all levels - are likely to be the best way forward. Such procurements may best be left to regional and local stakeholders, who can customise systems to their own local needs.

87. The critical issue for systems implementation is extensive needs assessment, scoping and piloting to ensure buy-in from all groups of potential users. The success of any implementation lies not in the range of functions it offers, but in the content it delivers and how well this addresses the needs of its intended users. Social care has 1.2 million workers with learning needs ranging from basic skills to post-qualification continuing professional development, across a range of specialisms and working in both the public and private sectors. Given this huge diversity, significant scoping work needs to be undertaken before any large-scale implementations are attempted.

88. Our e-learning strategy would seek to provide a clear sector-wide framework for more localised/specialised implementations, setting out the criteria and standards that will ensure a co-ordinated approach across regions and specialisms. Such an implementation framework could provide social care organisations with:

    • a quality framework for technical and pedagogical standards and specifications
    • an interoperability framework to ensure seamless linking across organisations and sectors
    • a progress framework that allows organisations to assess their current e-learning readiness and measure progress in embedding e-learning.

89. Centralised and decentralised services

    Our e-learning strategy needs to strike a balance between centralised and decentralised services. Not only is such a diverse sector unlikely to be well served by large centralised systems, but local innovation and responsibility needs to be maximised. Services best provided centrally might include:

    • implementation framework - consistent guidelines on technical and pedagogical standards, plus guidance on assessing e-learning readiness and progress
    • learning needs research - evidence gathered locally and regionally, and synthesised nationally to aid development of appropriate learning provision
    • sector repository for learning content - delivering quality-assured content commissioned by SCIE and other sector-wide bodies, and potentially also facilitating the sharing of locally developed content with peer review
    • standards forum - to review technical standards and specifications, design and pedagogical good practice for social care learning to ensure the sector stays abreast of all aspects of e-learning.

90. Organisational systems

    Commentaries on the adoption of e-learning in both workplace and academic contexts tend to show that success is as dependent on organisational change and 'human readiness' as it is on technical readiness. These organisational and culture changes are often hard, not least because e-learning has a way of highlighting barriers or cultural differences between disciplines, institutions and sectors. A strategic approach will not only highlight best practice and successes, but aim to encourage openness about what does not work and how we can learn from it.

91. Change in social care will be incremental. There may be scope within existing sector structures or as part of the Learning Resource Centre network to develop an 'e-champions' programme - local government and further education have adopted variations on this model. Individuals within existing organisations would be supported to become conduits for information and expertise about e-learning, and encourage awareness about best practice amongst colleagues. As educator and learner support programmes gather momentum and the benefits of e-learning become more widely understood, this in turn will encourage managers and leaders to plan for and fund e-learning.

92. The incorporation of European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) or the equivalent in the social work degree begins the process of developing a culture of information literacy - and consequent skills for e-learning - in the sector. Including these types of skills in vocational standards and qualifications for the wider social care workforce can also be considered.