On Thursday 9th October, Skills for Care published their annual State of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England report , which provides a comprehensive analysis of the adult social care workforce in England and the characteristics of the 1.59 million people working in it. You can read the report here as well as the Skills for Care press release here .  These are some of the key points from the report: There were improvements in the workforce for the second year - with more filled posts, fewer vacancies, the lowest turnover since 2014/15 and a record number of men working in the sector. These improvements were mainly driven by international rather than domestic recruitment - and there is evidence that the supply of international recruits is declining. Domestic recruitment and retention challenges persist, with 70,000 fewer British people in the workforce compared with two years previously. Pay for care workers was, on average, 58p an hour more than the National Living Wage - and more than 80% of jobs in the economy pay more. The number of apprenticeship starts has fallen by 75% since 2016/17. If you haven’t already registered for the Skills for Care online launch event on Thursday from 9.30 until 11.30am you can sign up here . Finally, if you haven't already seen the Workforce Strategy for adult social care that they developed in collaboration with the sector and published in July, you can find it here . Skills for Care are now in the process of implementing the Strategy, and a number of commitments made by them and other organisations have already been delivered. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch. The data experts in the Skills for Care Workforce Intelligence team would be very happy to help. Contact Elizabeth Lowe on 07767 115 736 or email elizabeth.lowe@skillsforcare.org.uk www.skillsforcare.org.uk

We hosted our Autumn Providers Conference on Thursday 3 rd October, at the Bescot Stadium in Walsall. This time, our conference was focused on Digital Social Care and Cyber Security, due to October being Cyber Security Awareness month! We were thrilled to welcome our expert guest speakers in this area: Katie Thorn – Project Lead – Digital Care Hub - Presented on Where is the care sector now in the digital world and where are we going? Michelle Ohren – Detective Inspector – The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands - Presented on Mastering Cyber Security in Your Business Kerry Beynon- Partner (Commercial Team)- HCR Law - Presented on Is GDPR Still Relevant? Leesa Newbould – Business Development Executive- Person Centred Software - Presented on Digital Medication Managemen t Marie Hawkes-Smith – Business Development Manager – Ally Cares - Presented on What is Sensor Based Falls Prevention Technology? You can view all the presentations here Alongside these were our fantastic exhibitors for the day, which included: HCR Law We Care Communications Person Centred Software Ally Cares Syncurio CareLine Live Citation Cyber British Red Cross The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands WMCA DSPT team It was a very informative day, with lots of essential information shared with care providers. Learning points to come out of the day consisted of: Ensuring you use Multi Factor Authentication on all your devices, ensuring there is more than just your password protecting your data Use Password Manager software on your device to save all your passwords in a secure place (to ensure you don’t forget any and to enable you to have a different password for every account? More and more care providers are now using ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence to support them in writing policies and procedures (BUT DO NOT USE THESE TO INPUT SERVICE USERS DATA OR WRITE CARE PLANS AS THIS IS A SHARED NETWORK AND NOT SECURE) It is recommended you complete your Data Security Protection Toolkit (DSPT) to enable you to prove you take data protection seriously and have the correct procedures in place. There is a Digital Skills Framework which providers can use to assess their digital knowledge and areas for learning GDPR is still relevant and if you have any dealings with other countries, you must ensure that their GDPR regulations are the same as the UK or risk being investigated and fined. Digital Medication Management can reduce mistakes within the workplace, reduce staff time inputting data and holds individuals accountable. Sensor Based Falls Technology allows staff to continuously be in the room with residents overnight through recording any sounds while residents sleep, to enable for a smoother shift handover and quicker reaction time if there are any issues. Thank you for everyone who came and we look forward to the next conference at the Bescot Stadium, which will be our Registered Managers, Deputies and Seniors CPD Conference on 23 rd January, focusing on CQC Quality Statement, ‘Is Your Service Effective’? Book your place now.