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Skills for Care is supporting Black History Month in October

03 Oct 2022

5 min read

Skills for Care is supporting Black History Month by sharing resources, blogs and articles focused on how to foster equality, diversity and inclusion in social care, and updates on actions Skills for Care is taking to support the sector.

Throughout this month we’ll be highlighting the resources that we have available to help social care employers to support diversity in their workplace, and to develop diverse teams and leaders.

We’ll also be sharing blogs and articles which provide guidance and real life examples on how social care managers can foster a workplace culture which supports equality, diversity and inclusion at all levels. Through the month we’ll be hearing from people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds working in social care about their own personal experiences and perspectives working in social care.

All our information and resources can be found on our dedicated Black History Month landing page and we’ll also be sharing our content on social media using #BlackHistoryMonth2022.

Beyond Black History Month

At Skills for Care supporting equality, diversity and inclusion within social care is something which stretches far beyond Black History Month.

This is an issue which is core to our work all year through, and a key part of our strategy is to ensure that everyone working in social care is treated equally, feels included and valued, and is supported to stay well and pursue their careers.

We’ve been working on the development of the Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standard (SC-WRES), which is a policy and standardised set of measures to monitor progress and drive up standards and practice across the sector with respect to the experiences of black, Asian, and minority ethnic staff.

This is a positive step forward in taking an actionable and measurable approach to managing equality, diversity, and inclusion in social care.

Another key focus of our work is providing learning and development opportunities to support progression for people from diverse backgrounds, and helping to build diversity in leadership.

Our well-established and successful ‘Moving up’ programme supports leaders from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds to take the next step in their learning and career, while our new ‘Forefront programme’ is aimed at people working in direct care roles and supports them in taking the first step in their leadership journey.

Recruitment processes and management styles can also impact on equality, diversity, and inclusion within the workplace.

We promote a values-based approach to recruitment and provide information and guidance for employers on how they can make sure their recruitment processes are values-led.

A compassionate leadership style is also important in creating a workplace culture where everyone can have open conversations in a setting which feels safe and supportive.

Understanding the different needs and experiences of people who work in social care and treating the people in your team as individuals, with consideration and empathy for the specific barriers they may be facing inside and outside of work, is what underpins compassionate leadership.

We have a series of videos on our website discussing compassionate leadership in practice, which highlights what this looks like and the benefit it brings for organisations and individuals.

You can find further information on supporting a diverse workforce on our ‘Supporting a diverse workforce’ webpage.