Information for Contracted Care Homes and Support Providers

What is the Skills Academy?

The Skills Academy has been developed in response to COVID-19 by Rotherham Council to support adult social care employers in Rotherham to meet their immediate and ongoing workforce planning and development needs.

Employer Registration and Vacancy Form

What support is available from the Skills Academy?

The Skills Academy offers the following four support pathways to adult social care employers:

Recruitment Pathway

• A social media campaign to stimulate employment interest in the
  adult social care sector
• Advertising employer vacancies via the
  Council’s website
• There is no need to register with the Skills
  Academy to access this recruitment pathway
• Organisations need only
  contact the
  skillsacademy@rotherham.gov.uk with a copy of their job adverts, a link to any application form, and a link to the organisation’s website

Recruitment and Selection Pathway

• This pathway is about developing a pool of ‘job ready’ candidates to job match against adult care vacancies held with the Skills Academy. It will include: screening candidates, interviewing candidates, undertaking employment checks and clearances, and candidate job matching
• Employers may prefer to undertake their own employment clearances and carry out your own interview of a candidate during job matching
• Employers must register with the Skills Academy using the above link to the Employer Registration and Vacancy Form and select the recruitment and selection pathway option
• Employers will need to register for a Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council UAT account as part of completing the Employer Registration and Vacancy Form

Recruitment, Selection and Pre-employment Training Pathway

• The pathway builds on the recruitment and selection pathway by adding a 4-day Direct Care Worker Pre-Employment Training Programme covering:
  • Care Certificate knowledge elements
  • Moving and Handling of People
  • Emergency First Aid, Providing Personal Care, Infection Prevention and Control and PPE
  • Medication awareness
• Employers must register with the Skills Academy using the above link to the Employer Registration and Vacancy Form and select the recruitment, selection and pre-employment training pathway option
• Employers will need to register for a Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council UAT account as part of completing the Employer Registration and Vacancy Form

Training Pathway

• This pathway is for employers who only require support with the pre-employment training outlined above
• There is no need to register with the Skills Academy to access this training offer, simply contact Learning-Development@rotherham.gov.uk to book places

Employers are welcome to access both the recruitment and training pathways.

What costs are involved?

There is no charge to join the Skills Academy and costs incurred by the Council will be met as a one-off to support the adult social care sector at these most challenging and changeable of times and until further notice.

Further information about the Skills Academy

Further information about the Skills Academy is available by contacting skillsacademy@rotherham.gov.uk