New guidance has been published to support social care workers providing care to older lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer (LGBTQ+) people.

The framework, which is published to coincide with LGBT+ History Month in February, was commissioned and funded by Skills for Care and developed by the University of Strathclyde and the Pride in Ageing programme at LGBT Foundation.

Oonagh Smyth, chief executive, Skills for Care, said: “We’re very proud to be part of the creation of this important framework, which we know is something that people working in social care want and need.

“It’s vital that care workers are comfortable supporting people with all aspects of their lives and identities, which includes their sexual and gender identity and personal relationships.

“We know that older LGBTQ+ people may face specific inequalities and challenges, and care workers need to understand these issues so that they can provide the most effective person-centred support to each person drawing on care and support.”

The comprehensive framework includes a background on LGBTQ+ issues and awareness; a look at health and wellbeing issues later in life, including research about LGBTQ+ inequalities; information on providing personalised care and support covering topics of trans-affirmative care, intersectionality, supporting people with dementia or HIV, and understanding intimacy and sexuality later in life; and recommendations for leadership, education, and service development to continue to improve care and support in this area.

The framework is intended to be used by social care employers, employees, training providers, regulators, commissioners, policy makers and others to build their own knowledge of LGBTQ+ issues, to support colleagues’ understanding and to create learning programmes which will allow teams to better support LGBTQ+ people in later life.

Dr Paul Martin OBE, chief executive, LGBT Foundation, said: “LGBT Foundation welcomes the launch of this new framework by Skills for Care, which is the result of an innovative partnership which brought together our Pride in Ageing programme’s dedicated work around the needs of older LGBTQ+ communities with University of Strathclyde’s excellence in teaching and research around social care.

“We would like to thank all of those with lived experience who took part in coproduction sessions to develop the themes of this framework, and we hope this piece of work inspires further conversations across the social care workforce around access to equitable, inclusive and affirmative social care for LGBTQ+ communities.”