The Northern Ireland Social Care Council were asked by the Department for Health in 2021 to develop a continuous professional learning framework, career development pathway and qualification-based register for social care practitioners.
To progress this work the Social Care Council set up a social care reform project team and applied a design thinking approach to the reform project. A design thinking approach utilises human centred methodologies that ensures collaboration and co-production are integral to the project and follows a 4-stage process of Discovery, Design, Develop and Deliver.
Double Diamond Design Thinking Framework Training (innovationtraining.org)
This has meant that the Social Care Council reform team have over the past three years engaged widely across the sector with: employers, managers, frontline staff, service users and other key stakeholders such as RQIA, Department of Health, the Department of Economy and Commissioners to develop the infrastructure to deliver a qualification-based register, continuous learning framework and career pathway. This partnership approach has resulted in the development of the:
– Care in Practice Framework (CiP)
– Level 2 Certificate in Safe and Effective Practice
(a new work-based entrance certificate that will be available to new social care practitioners coming into the sector).
Social care practitioner professional identity
To recognise the professional identity of the social care workforce the title of the social care practitioner was introduced as part of the CiP Framework. This new title has been introduced to better represent and promote cohesion, identity and to emphasise the value of the social care workforce. The introduction of this new title was agreed during engagement with the social care sector.
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