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When it comes to the future of the children's workforce there is one thing that National Children's Bureau head Paul Ennals is pretty clear about: that different children's professionals are not going to be abandoned in favour of generic workers.

"It emphatically does not mean making everyone into a generic children's worker. I know some people are afraid of that and I really think that is a misunderstanding of the agenda," he says. "I don't think anyone wants a generic children's worker but what is wanted is for the existing professions to work better together and that should involve working in different ways."

To explain what he means, he gives the example of teachers and social workers. "Often, deep frustration and mutual misunderstanding build up. Schools think social workers spend time finding reasons not to take on a caseload, while social workers think teachers spend time dumping all their problems on someone else."
But in the future, as a consequence of the extended schools programme, teachers and social workers will have to work more closely together - and will, inevitably, have to adapt their approach.

"Teachers shouldn't become social workers but can become better at understanding and responding to child protection concerns. Social workers shouldn't become teachers but can come to understand how schools can play a strong part in keeping children safe," he says. Yet he is adamant that, if anything, the "solid professional skills" of teachers and social workers will become even more important than is currently the case.

To achieve improved joint working across the whole children's sector, Ennals is convinced that training schemes for practitioners should be re-examined to make sure children's workers have a common grounding and an understanding of how the different roles can interact.

Such is his support for more complementary training among children's professionals Ennals is chair of two new, influential, bodies - the Children's Workforce Development Council and an offshoot, the Children's Workforce Network.

The CWDC  was set up following the government's commitment to reforming the workforce in the green paper Every Child Matters. It covers early years, social care, educational welfare and foster care, and its job is to come up with a training and qualifications framework. Although funded by the government, the CWDC is independent and employer-led - officially it doesn't get up and running until April, but the shadow board, which includes representatives from the National Day Nurseries Association and the Independent Children's Homes Association, has been running since June last year.

The CWDC co-ordinates the Children's Workforce Network, which is designed to bring together the key players across the whole of the children's profession, not just those who fall within the narrower remit of the CWDC. It is made up of senior level representatives from organisations including those that represent school staff, child health specialists and play workers, and is to work towards a combined programme of workforce development. The network has so far met twice, to talk about ways of bringing together the various training and qualifications frameworks.

Ennals says: "It is wrong that the world of children's social care feels like an entirely different world from the world of teaching or child health. It is wrong that someone coming into that work finds it so hard to transfer their skills and training across to working with children in another setting."

The ultimate aim, he says, is for training programmes to be developed that will allow people in one children's profession to "translate their training into something that carries credibility" in another.

But beyond staff training, the Children's Workforce Network is also a forum where the different organisations can discuss common problems, such as recruitment and retention. Ennals thinks there is huge potential for sharing recruitment campaigns - and channelling interested applicants into the right area of the children's profession rather than losing them altogether just because they are unsuitable for a specific role being advertised.

This could prove a useful tactic, should new professional roles spring up in the future in the way that Ennals predicts. "In the past when new integrated services have developed, new professional roles have sprung up. We'll see loads of other new roles emerging as local services find creative ways of meeting needs," he says.
Indeed, it is his belief that unless the government goes further than merely joining up structures such as children's trusts, and actually promotes the joining up of roles, then "in 10 years we won't know anything has happened". But he adds: "When we do find such roles we will have to train people to undertake them. We have to support them and supervise them."

It is only with the right, adapted training that he feels sustainable change can be achieved. In the past, pioneers' attempts to introduce innovative, joined-up ways of working have often faded away. Ennals attributes this dismal pattern to the fact that training for the different workers involved has always remained separate. But, given the government's more systematic approach this time, he is hopeful that lasting change can be achieved.

"If we can develop workforce infrastructure to support joined-up working then changes might become embedded and real," he says. But he warns: "We have to develop a common infrastructure otherwise the tide will come in and go out and there will be no footprints left in the sand and the new experiment in integrated working will be as if it never happened."

So what are the challenges that lie ahead? In the first instance, the "conservatism" of the existing professional groups who, having fought hard for pride and identity, are now concerned that they could lose it all too quickly.
"The risk is that people will defend the past rather than be open to further changes," says Ennals. "There's an innate defensiveness among people who have worked in the old silos. Even if in principle they want to work in a new way their instincts might start to drag them back."

But he is keen to point out that uniting around the needs of the child doesn't mean that workers can't unite in other ways. "By saying there is something that unites all those working with children doesn't mean there isn't still something that unites nurses or social workers.

"Most of us live in several worlds. I've worked with children but I'm now a manager and see some commonality with managers. All of us have several different images. I don't have to constrain myself to just one construct."
Of course it's not just the workers themselves who are limited by the silo mentality. The trade unions, professional associations and regulatory bodies are equally separate - for the time being anyway.

"We'll know if we have really moved on with the creation of a children's profession when we start to see some of those types of infrastructures cutting across."

Given that no single professional association covers the needs of the whole children's workforce, the Children's Workforce Development Council has offered a place to the British Association of Social Workers, even though its membership covers less than 2 per cent of the children's workforce. It is hoped that over time, the different professional associations will come to an agreement about which of them can represent the interests of them all on the CWDC.

None of the ambitious plans for the children's workforce can be achieved overnight. As Ennals points out, changing workforce practice through training is "a long game".

"Even if we were to change all the training for all the new people coming into social work, teaching and health visiting, it would still be 40 years before the last person trained under the old system worked their way through."

This is of particular concern given that those at the top of the professions are themselves from the old divided professions.

"In the coming years the risk is that new people coming in will be motivated by a new joined up way of working that rejects the old organisational silos and barriers but that the leaders, the grey-haired figures in suits and power jackets will have been trained in the old way."

Ennals believes that the days of "idle rhetoric" about the joining up of the children's workforce are over and is optimistic that real steps are now being taken.

"In 10 to 15 years, when the workforce is working in a different way, some of the things that seem challenging now will be hard to understand," he promises.

That may well be the case, but for many at the moment, the road ahead still seems long and potentially hazardous.

Behind the council

The Children's Workforce Development Council was established following the green paper Every Child Matters. It is one of five bodies which will form the UK Skills for Care and Development Sector Skills Council. A shadow board is in operation but a permanent chair and chief executive are expected to be appointed in April. It is funded by the government but is employer-led.

What is its mission?

• To improve outcomes for children by enhancing the role of the workforce.
• To strengthen the workforce by ensuring all workers have the appropriate skills and qualifications.
• To encourage integration while continuing to value the distinctiveness of each profession.
• To promote a vision of the children's workforce as "integrated, satisfying and valuable".

Which sector does it represent?

• Early years including childminders, day care workers and nursery teachers.
• Educational welfare staff, learning mentors and Connexions advisers.
• Foster care.
• Social care including Cafcass.

 What is the Children's Workforce Network? 

• The CWN brings together those involved in workforce development across the wider children's sector.
• Includes organisations representing those who employ teachers and other school staff, youth workers, youth justice workers, play workers, social care practitioners and child health specialists.
• Will co-ordinate a combined programme for workforce development and reform.