Career advice for working with children & young people
The challenge of helping the country’s young reach their full potential has become something of a national preoccupation.
Tune into the radio or flick through any newspaper and it’s soon evident that the government and media are fixated on the myriad issues this brings. Most importantly, on the ground, the requirements of integrated working called for in Every Child Matters are starting to take effect and show real benefits.
Quite simply, there has never been a more fascinating time to work with children and young people.
Events of the last few months have seen the government step up the emphasis on children’s issues.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has put children and young people’s interests at the heart of his Cabinet, with Secretary of State Ed Balls overseeing the newly created Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Policy reviews for children and families, disabled children and the ten-year youth review fed into the Comprehensive Spending Review announced in autumn 2007.
This investment in services is supplemented by a drive to professionalise the children’s workforce. Developments include the Early Years Foundation Stage in England which kicks in next autumn, youth work’s move to become an all-graduate profession from 2010 and the Integrated Qualifications Framework, that will enable practitioners to move more freely between disciplines.
In September 2007, Children Now and Young People Now merged. It brought together practitioners, managerial and frontline, from across the public and voluntary sectors, who work with the young from birth to 19. The creation of Children & Young People Now has been an enterprise that chimes with the partnership working that’s at the core of the Every Child Matters and Youth Matters agendas.
In the same spirit, our Guide to Careers brings together the range of occupations that work with the young. They might work in one of the most challenging fields, but the children’s workforce is diverse, dedicated and secure in the knowledge that their jobs really do matter.
Ravi Chandiramani
Editor, Children & Young People Now
Qualification guide
New qualifications are being developed across the children and young people’s sectors to improve workforce standards. Sue Learner reports on the changes.
The era of multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working across services for children and young people is well and truly here. The government’s Every Child Matters agenda, some of which became statutory in the Children Act 2004, has proved to be a radical programme of reform.
Under these changes, local authorities are required to work with partners such as primary care trusts through children’s trusts to deliver joined up working – often through multi-agency partnerships. These multi-disciplinary teams have led to increased movement within the children’s workforce.
This summer the National College of School Leadership launched its first multi-agency training scheme – designed to help teachers, police officers, health experts and social workers work together and implement the Every Child Matters policy.
The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) was set up in April 2005 to raise standards in the children’s sector and improve the training and qualifications available.
It has devised a range of training programmes including the Early Years Professional Status to tie in with the Early Years Foundation Stage, a new curriculum for under-fives, to be implemented across England from September 2008. The council has also created a Level 3 Certificate in Early Years Foundation Stage Practice to help those working with children implement the stage.
Meanwhile, schools and colleges are gearing up for the biggest change to qualifications in the past 20 years. The Society, Health and Development Diploma will be on offer in 2008 and is designed to help young people gain a career in areas such as adult social care, community justice, health and the children and young people’s workforce. It is one of 14 diplomas that will be made available to all 14- to 19- year-olds in England by 2013.
Paul Ennals, chief executive of the Children’s Workforce Network, an alliance of organisations committed to improving workforce standards, says: “We want to attract young people to join us. The Society, Health and Development Diploma aims to prepare the young people of today to work with the children and young people of tomorrow.”
Youth work
Youth work is to become a graduate profession by 2010 with the minimum qualification for a professional youth worker being an honours degree – currently a higher education diploma or foundation degree is required.
The National Youth Agency hopes the change will put youth work on a more equal footing with other professions such as teaching and social work.
All qualifications are based on the National Occupational Standards for Youth Work, which are currently being revised.
The standards, which will apply across the UK, are seen as benchmarks for effective practice and set out the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values that a person doing youth work needs. They will influence the development of new youth work qualifications with the revised version expected to be published at the end of 2007.
Maureen O’Mara, standards and qualifications officer at Lifelong Learning UK, says: “The standards cover all areas of youth work but people would only take on board standards relevant to their role.”
People interested in Muslim youth work can now do the University of Chester’s first degree in Muslim youth work which started this September. There are a number of Christian youth work degree programmes already in existence.
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Integrated qualifications
Services for children and young people are changing as the people working within them provide more integrated services.
The Integrated Qualifications Framework is intended to support closer working across the sector and enable practitioners to move more freely between roles. The framework is being developed by the CWDC in partnership with the Children’s Workforce Network.
The framework, which should be widely available across England by 2010, will affect all areas of the children’s workforce including health, education, soc-ial care, childcare and youth justice.
Its aim is to set out a comprehensive list of qualifications for people working with children and young people, incorporating the best existing qualifications and a range of new qualifications.
This will create, for example, suitable training for a teacher who decides to go into social work, yet who does not wish to return to university.
Paul Ennals, chair of the Children’s Workforce Network, claims it will enable workforce teams to “work more effectively together”.
Jane Haywood, chief executive of CWDC, calls the qualifications framework “an integral part of the workforce reform agenda”.
The framework is being designed to link with both the emerging Qualifications and Credit Framework and with the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications. It has also created common induction standards.
The first qualifications on the integrated framework are the Level 3 Award in Playwork for Early Years and Childcare Workers, the Early Years Foundation Stage Level 3 Certificate and the Level 3 Award in Early Years and Childcare for Playworkers.
The transitional modules developed by SkillsActive enable people to transfer from playwork to early years and vice versa. Paul Bonel, director for the Playwork Unit at SkillsActive, calls the modules “the first tangible step in the path to integration and workforce mobility”.
Early years
The Early Years Professional Status is a new award for graduate professionals working with children up to five and is tied into the new foundation stage.
The government sees early years professionals as key to raising the quality of early years provision.
The CWDC wants to see practitioners with the status in all children’s centres offering childcare by 2010, and in every full day care setting by 2015.
To achieve Early Years Professional Status, candidates need to hold a
degree in early childhood studies or an equivalent qualification that provides a relevant and appropriate underpinning knowledge for the role, according to the CWDC.
CWDC’s Jane Haywood does not discount new graduates just out of university from applying but says they will need to be able “to lead practice across the Early Years Professional Status, in a range of settings modelling the skills and behaviours that promote good outcomes for children and supporting and mentoring other practitioners.”
She adds: “It is unlikely that a newly qualified graduate will have sufficient experience to do this. However, people have different backgrounds and may have gone into their degree course with substantial experience.”
More than 1,000 people have been accredited with the status, which is
designed to be equivalent to that of a qualified teacher.
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Across the country: The qualifications required
Wales
The Care Council for Wales has set up a Children and Young People’s Workforce Development Network.
From 1 April 2008, anyone in charge of under-eights day care and childminding should have two years’ experience and at least a Level 3 qualification within the National Qualifications Framework for Early Years Education, Childcare & Playwork.
At least half of all childcare staff in playgroups and out-of-school clubs must hold a Level 2 qualification.
Jobs with children and young people in Wales
Scotland
An integrated qualifications framework for the children’s workforce is currently being developed by the Scottish Government.
Programmes offering the new qualifications and professional development for leaders will be in place by September 2008.
By 2011, the Scottish Government wants all early years centres to be led by people who are qualified to Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Level 9 or who have a relevant degree or work-based equivalent.
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Northern Ireland
Within the next few years, every person in Northern Ireland involved in providing or delivering social work and social care services will be registered with the Northern Ireland Social Care Council.
This registration will mean that the person will meet agreed standards of conduct, practice, training and education.
Induction standards for social care and children’s services’ workers were published in June and will be implemented in spring 2008.
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