Skills for Care’s pledge to supporting equality, diversity, and inclusion in social care
06 Feb 2023
10 min read
- Culture and diversity
- Skills for Care
As Race Equality Week 2023 begins Oonagh Smyth, CEO and John Coughlan, Chair of Skills for Care discuss the organisation’s work to support equality, diversity and inclusion in social care and their vision for the future.
The key messages within this year’s Race Equality Week are #ItsEveryonesBusiness and #ActionDrivesChange.
Combined, these messages highlight the individual responsibility of all of us to take a proactive approach to supporting equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).
Equality, diversity and inclusion in social care
Our research and interactions with people working in social care from ethnically diverse backgrounds tell us that we have work to do in social care to be truly inclusive.
Skills for Care’s latest data highlight that while social care is a diverse sector in terms of race – 23% of people working in social care are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds – we don’t see that same level of representation at more senior levels, with only 16% of managerial roles being taken up by people from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background.
We also know that people from diverse backgrounds continue to face challenges, barriers and negative experiences which can be linked to their race[1].
We want this to change.
Skills for Care’s vision
Our vision is of a fair and just society, where people can access the advice, care, and support they need to live life to the fullest.
Our mission is to support and empower current and future social care leaders, employers and the wider workforce. We cannot achieve this mission without making sure that people working in social care have equal opportunities to progress and flourish personally and professionally.
That’s why one of the strategic priorities of our work is to support culture and diversity so that the workforce is treated equally, feels included and valued, and is supported to stay well and pursue their careers in social care.
What we’re doing
Our work has three strands:
- Supporting people from diverse backgrounds to progress and excel in social care. Our long-standing and popular Moving Up programme is tailored to support managers from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds to take the next step in their career and to have a real strategic impact. It offers networking and support and covers topics and skills including networking, building self-confidence, leadership skills, creating a personal brand, and identifying your own skills and weaknesses. More recently we launched our Forefront Programme which is aimed at helping care staff in direct care giving roles to take the first step in their leadership journey.
- Supporting employers to promote equality, diversity and inclusion with their team and the people they support with practical resources. We support employers with compassionate leadership practice to ensure the workforce feels equal, valued, and included, with a culture that encourages wellbeing and progression. Tomorrow sees the launch of ‘Supporting a diverse workforce: Understanding racism’. This introductory overview of current thinking and understanding about racism encourages reflection and discussion around understanding racism, the legal context and provides the opportunity to identify any actions to take forward.
- Supporting employers to measure and analyse the experience of their Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff with the successful development and piloting of the Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standard (SC-WRES). The WRES gives employers the data to inform action plans and change.
A closing note from Oonagh Smyth
A closing note from John Coughlan
Find out more on our Race Equality Week webpage.
[1] Skills for Care 2020. Investigating the issues facing the BAME workforce and the impact of COVID-19
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