News

Proposals to create a dedicated sector skills council for the children’s workforce outlined in the green paper are likely to be dropped, according to Topss England chairperson Arthur Keefe, writes Sally Gillen.

Around 50,000 employers and more than two million workers, many of whom are already covered by smaller sector skills councils, would have been affected by the proposal.

But it is believed the plans, which would have covered all children’s workers from teachers to social workers, have been abandoned because of the enormous task involved in setting up such a body.

Instead, a body that covers social care professionals working with children and adults will almost certainly be given the go-ahead in April.

The Topss UK Partnership – consisting of training body Topss England, the Care Council for Wales, the Northern Ireland Social Care Council and the Scottish Social Services Council – was approved to operate its own sector skills council, Skills for Care, last year (news, page 7, November 13). Talks between the partnership, the government, and the Sector Skills Development Agency, which issues the licences, have been geared towards the model of one skills council covering the whole social care sector.

But Keefe told delegates that the children’s part of the new Skills for Care would have a distinct identity within the new body. Although it would not include some groups such as teachers or youth justice workers, it would cover other professionals such as education welfare officers.

He added that those sector skills councils dealing with professionals such as teachers would be required to have a “strongly collaborative” relationship with the new sector skills council.