Social care workforce development body Skills for Care has welcomed the first Care Quality Commission report as an ‘important contribution’, saying it has put the spotlight on training as a key issue to be addressed.

The report CQC shows that 86% of social care employers are meeting the national minimum standard for training their staff but the regulator thinks that is not enough.

Skills for Care chief executive Andrea Rowe agreed there was much more to be done including training the workforce in specialist areas like dementia and autistic care, developing the Qualifications and Credit Framework being introduced this year and to support workers  undertaking new roles in care and support.

“Skills for Care welcomes this report as a major con­tribution to raising the issue of workforce training and how joined up adult social care and health workforce development can assist both sectors to integrate and improve the experience for people who use services,”  said Ms Rowe.

“The report shows that 86% or less of adult social care service do meet the minimum standards on training but we are committed to actively engaging with employers to drive the standards up.”

Skills for Care says significant progress has been made  in supporting employers to train their staff and they are currently in the process of refreshing the Common Induction Standards that aim to support workers as they begin their careers in adult social care.

Other projects have looked at how social care and health job roles can be merged, how to drive forward the personalisation agenda and how both sectors can jointly reduce the numbers of people accessing expensive hospital care.