Voluntary Sector Social Services Workforce Unit

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Workforce Planning Resources

Workforce Planning Resources and Tools

  • Workforce Solutions Portal

The SSSC's Workforce Solutions Portal provides access to a range of resources to assist employers meet the workforce development and registration agendas for the sector. There is a variety of resources available - some are focussed on the supporting the individual employee to plan and progress their own learning and development, others are intended for employers to support them in developing the workforce they need now, or may need in the future.

Visit the Workforce Solutions Portal here

  • Continuous Learning Framework

The Continuous Learning Framework(CLF), produced by the SSSC and IRISS describes what people need to be able to do their job well now and in the future and what employers need to do support their employees, focusing on four key areas:

  1. the qualifications and training that are needed
  2. the knowledge, skills, values and understanding required
  3. personal capabilities that describe the way people manage themselves and their relationships with others and
  4. organisational capabilities which describe the culture and conditions in the workplace that enable social service workers to be the best they can be.

The CLF is not mandatory but the Scottish Government is keen to see ownership of it across the Social Services Sector as a key resource for achieving the vision of a competent, confident workforce, capable of delivering high quality services. The CLF is not intended to replace the systems and processes which many organisations already have in place but to enhance their effectiveness.

You can download a pdf of the Continuous Learning Framework here.

We are now helping to support social service workers and their employers across all services areas and sectors to use the CLF in practice in a way which promotes their own orgnisation's learning and development (as individuals and organisations). 

You can find some interesting examples of how the CLF is being used by other organisations here.

To find out more about the Workforce Unit's work with the CLF, please click here.

  • Workforce Planning Toolkit

Workforce Planning is about getting the right people, with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time.

Workforce planning involves analysing your current workforce, and using this knowledge, combined with an awareness of external drivers, to predict and plan the future skills and resources needed to develop new and improved services. The ultimate aim is to provide services which are flexible, responsive and prioritise service user's needs.

This toolkit aims to provide guidance and tools to hellp you develop your own workforce plan.

Download the Workforce Planning Toolkit [-]

  • Care Training Needs Analyser

The Care Training Needs Analyser is a useful online tool to help managers at a local level to manage and produce reports on care and non care staff/volunteer learning and development. This includes collation and analysis of staff learning such as information about registration, disclosure processing, mandatory qualifications, soft skills learning and continuous professional development.

The aim of the tool is to make a complex task easier to manage, and the Care Training Needs Analyser couldn't be simpler. Just follow the following five steps:

  • Match different job titles to the grade - i.e. non-care post; new recruit, support worker; practitioner; supervisor; manager
  • Select organisation qualifications requirements for each post - e.g. mandatory/non accredited learning
  • Insert data about each employee - e.g. the qualifications held, or those being worked towards
  • Analyse data using a traffic light system - i.e. shows qualifications required, those in progress, and those achieved with a range of analysis and reporting options
  • Utilise the following different types of reporting options:
- statistical breakdown of workforce
- qualifications missing/met/working towards
- renewal qualifications required
- employee learning record for supervision & appraisal

EVOC offer a free trial to interested organisations, to show you how this tool works in a practical way. Access to this trial is provided for a ten day period, after which you can register for your own account.

Registration

To register complete the application form online
Please note the following annual maintenance fees for 2009/2010:

<10 employees            £75
<30 employees            £125
SME<250 employees     £175
>251 employees          £300

And now through a project funded by the Big Lottery; the South East Scotland Workforce Development Project (of which the Workforce Unit is part), small organisations (with less than 250 employees) providing care services in East, West, Mid Lothians, Scottish Borders & Edinburgh will have free use of the Care Training Needs Analyser until March 2011.

For more information, please contact Trisha Gow, 0131 555 9100, or visit the EVOC website.