Social Work with Older People: Development of Capabilities Statement and Professional Development Pathway for Social Workers

Social Work with Older People: Development of Capabilities Statement and Professional Development Pathway for Social Workers in England working with older people.

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) is leading the development of a Capabilities Statement and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Pathway for social workers, who work with older people.

  • The Capabilities Statement will set out the knowledge, skills and values that social workers need to work well with older people.
  • The CPD Pathway will set out the roles that older people’s social workers can have at different stages of their career. It will outline how social workers can develop expertise, and how they will demonstrate this as they move from qualification through their career.

If you are able to help, or wish to know more please CLICK HERE.
 

The Statement and Pathway are commissioned by the Chief Social Worker for Adults. They will be co-produced with stakeholders, including social workers and older people, those who support them as informal carers and family members, and relevant organisations.

The final products will be owned by the social work profession, through BASW, endorsed by the Department of Health and implemented by the sector. They will provide a national practice excellence framework for social work with older people that builds upon the Knowledge and Skills Statement for Social Workers in Adult Services and the Professional Capabilities Framework.

Social work with older people is one of the most important areas of social care. In 2014-15 people over 65 years of age were responsible for 72% of requests for adult social care. The numbers and needs of older people and older carers are increasing. Social work with older people is a growing priority as the population ages. Despite this, practice standards for excellence in social work in this area have not yet been developed and implemented.

The Capabilities and Pathway will:

  • Increase recognition of the crucial professional role of social work with older people
  • Strengthen social work capabilities and confidence in this field
  • Develop the role of social work with carers and families of older people as partners in care and support, and recipients of support in their own right
  • Support social work to work well with other professions and agencies, including to reduce pressure on high demand services like community health services and hospitals.

We are aiming to produce the Capabilities Statement by the end of April 2017 and the CPD Pathway for October 2017.

How you can help?

We will be meeting with several group of social workers working with older people to discuss with them what should be in the Capabilities Statement and what their views of what the CPD pathway should look like. However it would be useful to speak to more groups of social workers so if you are interested in organising a group of social workers we can meet with please get in touch.

We also want to meet with groups of older people and their carers and again if you could help with that it would be very helpful.

We will produce a draft statement of Capabilities and draft CPD Pathway and will consult with BASW members on that, so there will be opportunities to get involved and comment.

If you are able to help, or wish to know more please CLICK HERE.