Is regulation good for skill development? Mediating actors and workplace practice in adult social care in England

Abstract

The Care Standards Act (2000) regulates the provision of care services in the UK, specifying induction and competence requirements for managers and workers, and that workers should have access to 3 days of training a year. Applying Dickens' concept of the mediation of regulation by workplace actors to five award-winning organisations providing adult social care services, the authors analyse factors contributing to positive mediation. They identify the significance of triggers for innovation which ‘run in the same direction’ as regulation, and of cosmopolitan actors whose innovatory practices and wider social networks link different levels and contribute to capacity building in the sector.

Keywords:

• mediation of social actors
• regulation
• skill development
• social care workforce

Acknowledgements

This research was conducted between 2007 and 2009 and was funded by the Department of Health's Social Care Workforce Research Initiative. The findings have been published as Skill Development in the Social Care Sector: An Assessment of Institutional and Organisational Capacity (Rainbird et al. 2009). We are grateful to Tony Elgar for drawing our attention to Herzenberg et al.'s (2000) work, and to Ed Heery for comments on an earlier version of this article and for drawing our attention to Dickens' (1989) concept of the ‘mediation’ of the law by institutional actors at the workplace level. We are also grateful to Mark Stuart and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this article.

Notes

1. A BBC Panorama Programme on 6th April 2009 investigated ‘Britain's Homecare Scandal’, using two undercover care workers. Although they both had received 4 days training from Help the Aged which exceeded the National Minimum Training requirements prior to the programme, they applied for jobs stating that they had no previous training. At one agency the only training received was to watch four 20 minute DVDs, a 90 minute tutorial and to work alongside a more experienced worker, who herself had not received training in lifting and the use of hoists. At the second agency, workers reported that they were so busy that they never had time for training, a situation described as ‘training is on the “never, never” here’.

2. For full details of the research methodology and the case study organisations, see Rainbird et al. (2009).