The Adult Learning and Skills Service (ALSS) aims to create 60 new apprenticeship opportunities for individuals, who live in County Durham, aged 19-24 and 25 +, in Health and Social Care at Level 2 and 3.

This programme will focus on creating new opportunities in the sector, and current employees can also benefit from FREE* Health and Social Care Qualifications.

Don’t miss out on Workforce Development Funding!

Skills for Care have advised us that they plan to amend the WDF contracts in January.

This amendment will be based on the information the partnership lead (decha) provides in their update to Skills for Care.

In order to ensure any submissions you make will be considered you MUST advise us NOW if you plan to submit claims.

Celebrating personalised care

The outstanding achievements of care and support service providers in the county have been recognised at an award ceremony earlier this month.

Durham County Council’s 2011 Personalisation Awards took place at the Gala Theatre and were presented to the private, independent and voluntary sector organisations that best help individuals in taking control of their own care and support services.

Skills for Care have been receiving feedback that workforce development fund partnerships and their members are concerned about whether they will be able to fulfil the milestones set out in their WDF contracts. There are a range of issues that have been identified as contributing to this situation which have been fully explored and considered by Skills for Care .

DECHA have commissioned two additional courses in understanding how to support individuals with autistic spectrum. This one-day training for Care Workers will provide an understanding and is an induction programme for the QCF unit.

As you will be aware the Workforce Development Fund (WDF) has replaced the previous Training Strategy Implementation (TSI)funding. A significant number of DECHA members have over recent years been able to submit units for reimbursement of part of the cost of training their staff.

A questionnaire to aid in identifying training needs for your organisation can be found in the banner headlines on the right of this page. If you think this would be useful to your organisation, complete the form and send it to Ed Collins.

Don't forget that Skills for Care update their enews every few weeks.

As part of your partnership agreement with decha, and in order to have free access to the training offered by us, it is essential that you have an up to date, fully compliant, nmds-sc registration.

The Princes Trust is funding a GET INTO CARE programme for unemployed 17-19 year olds living in the South West Durham area. If you are aware of any young people who meet these criteria and are interested in a career in care, please let them know about this opportunity.

Mental Capacity Act 2005 The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards regulations

Durham County Council are receiving an increasing number of requests to provided training in care homes on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards regulations.

Skills for Care publish a fortnightly enews bulletin in order to bring any current activities to the sector's attention.

Durham County Council is promoting the personalisation awards to celebrate excellence across the care and support sector. The awards also promote best practice within the sector and pay tribute to service providers who have demonstrated outstanding excellence within their field of work.

Benchmark Learning are now enrolling for the Dementia QCF award.

This course is fully funded, funds provided via the local Workforce Development Council.

The Great British Care Awards recognise individuals who have demonstrated excellence within their field of work. They do this at a series of regional events throughout England

Skills for care enews can be read online and provides updates on current activities and information about funding availability.

Nominations are now open for Accolades 2011/12

Achieving an Accolade proves you are improving the lives of people using social care services through workforce development.

Does this sound like you or your organisation? If you provide a high quality service and invest in training, qualifications and development for your staff we want to hear from you. You can also nominate another organisation or employer that you think would be a worthy winner of an Accolade.

Jamie Penfold, latterly of Business Link has recently established Jay Solutions. Read further to see a quote from Jamie about what he hopes to do for the sector with his new organisation.

We have now commissioned the next round of End of Life Training courses and you can book now for September and October. This one-day training for Care Workers will provide an understanding of End of Life care and is an induction programme for 3 QCF units

Pattinson & Milburn Training Limited, a locally based training organisation, are offering Apprenticeships, with FREE Health and Social Care Diplomas.

A Learning and Development Pathway has been developed by the North East Regional Development of Skills Group in collaboration with Skills for Health and Skills for Care.

This Learning and Development Pathway is intended to support the National Dementia Strategy which was published by the Department of Health in February 2008.

It is now open for consultation within the sector.

Please see flyer for Free Medication Training offered to Decha Members- offered by Release Potential.

Release Potential will be delivering the accredited and nationally recognised NCFE L2 Certificate in Understanding the Safe Handling of Medicines. They are delivering 4 taught sessions, one for each unit generally about 2-3 weeks apart, and there is completion of workbooks alongside the sessions to achieve the qualification. The dates for the sessions are 27/04/11, 11/05/11, 23/05/11 and 15/06/11. We will be delivering at Mt Oswald Manor and Golf Course, South Road, Durham DH1 3TQ, and are planning a morning group 09.30-12.30, and an afternoon group 13.30-16.30.

County Durham Safeguarding Team are working with other Local Authorities in the North East to deliver an information campaign to raise awareness and help protect vulnerable adults.

Information on the Common Induction Standards for carers has been provided by Skills for Care to assist direct employers.