Being held in partnership with College Development Network (CDN), this ‘by invitation’ conference will bring together an invited audience of senior management and workforce leads from across Scotland’s social care services – including health and social care partnerships, independent and third sector care providers, the NHS and Scotland’s colleges. It will explore the following key themes:

• Integration and the changing models of social care delivery
• the shared challenges and opportunities this presents to Scotland’s care workforce
• the new national care standards and how colleges and service providers can work together to ensure workforce training and skillsets meet evolving care service needs and re-design
• developing attractive career pathways in care
• a career in care in 2025 – the skillsets required for our future care workers

The demographic pressures facing health and social care services have been well documented. Between 2012 and 2037, Scotland’s pensionable age population is estimated to increase in number by 27% … compared to a 4% rise in the working age population and a 5% increase in the number of children. Although this doesn’t necessarily indicate that the number of older people requiring care will rise by a similar margin over the same period, a significant increase is widely anticipated. And with Scotland’s healthy life expectancy rate (the number of years people can expect to live in good health) remaining largely stagnant over the last decade, it is likely that a larger number of older people will require care and support for longer.

Within a climate of limited public finances and resources, Health and Social Care services are being transformed to try to meet this challenge. The ‘Right People, Right Place, Right Time’ principle aims to ensure Scotland’s population continues to receive high quality person-centred care delivered in the most appropriate setting for the individual and their family – often in a home based or homely setting rather than in hospital. Carers are central to this approach.

Just over 200,000 people work in social work and social care in Scotland, around one in 13 people in employment. Many more may be required to meet future demand for care services. Popular perception holds that carers are overworked and undervalued – performing mundane, ‘low level’ tasks with little opportunity for career progression or personal development. In reality, a career in care presents multiple pathways and opportunities into employment and further and higher education programmes (e.g. clinical, community, education, and management settings) with associated remuneration and benefits’ packages. A career in Care is an extremely rewarding area of work where you can really make a difference to people’s lives – see what students and former students say.

So how can we work together to engage, support and upskill our current care workforce? How can we develop career pathways that are attractive to potential care workers of the future? And what attitudes, skillsets and qualifications will our future care workforce require to continue to meet evolving service needs and demands?