Consultation on workforce reforms

A single qualifications framework for the children’s
workforce to enable people to move around positions in
children’s services, was proposed by the government last
week.

The plans, contained in the Children’s Workforce Strategy
published by the Department for Education and Skills, also aim to
make it easier for people to move up into professional and senior
roles.

The qualifications in the framework will be built on
transferable units of core and specialist skills and knowledge.
There will also be common approaches to the accreditation of
previous experience and learning to make it easier for people to
use generic experience gained from different jobs to support their
career in children’s services.

The consultation goes on to state that councils and their
strategic partners should work with trade unions and professional
bodies locally to create integrated workforce strategies that
respond to local need. Directors of children’s services and
lead members will be required to lead on this.

The strategies will include programmes to support career
progression using work-based routes and regular analyses of
training needs to identify skills gaps.

While childcare charity the Daycare Trust welcomed the idea of a
single qualifications framework it said that the workforce strategy
did not move this on from the agenda that was proposed in the ten
year childcare strategy last December.

The charity added that the workforce strategy, as it stands, is
not ambitious enough in terms of cihldcare workers. “Whilst
acknowledging that quality in the childcare workforce needs to be
raised, it misses the opportunity to present a bold vision for the
future of the workforce, and provide the means to achieve
it,” said a spokesperson.

The charity went on to criticise the strategy’s target to
have one member of staff trained at graduate level in all 3, 500
planned children’s centres by 2010 and in every daycare
setting by 2015 as too low.

The Children’s Workforce Strategy consultation closes 22
July. Go to: www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/key-documents/