NEWS

Bild responds to the Government’s plans for the next steps of Putting People at the Heart of Care white paper

 4 April 2023

Bild welcomes the Government’s commitment to ‘launch a new Care Workforce Pathway for adult social care, which will provide career structure and support development’.

The pathway, launched today (4^th April 2023), sets out the Government’s ambition to ensure:

1. People have choice, control and support to live independent lives.
2. People can access outstanding quality and tailored care and support.
3. People find adult social care fair and accessible.

We know for many people with mental health conditions, learning disabilities and autism this is not the case and we echo concerns of other organisations that the investment announced when the People at the Heart of Care white paper was originally published in 2021 has been halved.

However, opportunities to specialise in areas such as learning disability, autism, mental health, and dementia are a welcome development as many providers have criticised current apprenticeships and training options for providing a ‘one size fits all’ view of supporting people, rather than enabling people to learn how to best support people based on their needs.

We are also pleased to see the Care Workforce Pathway supports people to become practice leaders in their specialist area – something that is recognised as the best way to improve practice across all sectors.

Bild champions practice leadership as a means to support the workforce and improve care by modelling ways of working in their area of specialism and providing coaching to help others to improve.

The call for evidence on the new Care Workforce Pathway, will close on 31 May 2023, and we encourage those with relevant experience to contribute.

Bild worked with the Health and Wellbeing Alliance to help inform the Care Workforce Pathway through a survey conducted in 2022. You can see a summary of our survey here.