Core Skills at work
Core Skills are the minimum basic skills that an adult requires to function in modern society in the UK.
In the workplace, core skills are essential for accomplishing basic tasks, even the lowest level of tasks.
In the health and social care sector, core skills ensure that social care workers can complete everyday tasks, such as, communicating with the people they support, counting medication, using a computer and writing a care plan.
If a care worker does not have the basic skills to record their own activities on a care chart, or basic counting or measuring, or any other basic documentation required by even the most junior care assistants during their care duties, then that care worker is not competent.
All Managers, Team Leaders, Supervisors and anyone else who supervises or leads staff or colleagues must be aware of the requirements of minimum core skills competence for all care staff working in their setting.
Core Skills for Health and Social Care Workers
Core Skills include:
- English skills (Literacy),
- Mathematics skills (Numeracy),
- Digital skills
- Employability skills
- Team work skills
- Problem Solving skills.
Core skills in health and social care ensure that staff can complete everyday tasks such as:
- Communicating with the individuals they support and colleagues,
- Writing and updating care plans and various important documentation
- Counting medication, and understanding different doses
- Understand and calculations and timetables
- Using a computer to record and update update information
Every Care Worker must ensure that they possess the basic skills to do the job that they have been employed to do.
All Managers, Team Leaders, Supervisors and anyone else who supervises or leads staff or colleagues, must ensure that all the people they manage, supervise, or lead, all possess the required Core Skills for working in their care setting.