What are National Occupational Standards?

National Occupational Standards (NOS) are nationally agreed statements of competence* which describe what an effective and competent worker does and needs to know to deliver quality in their job.

*Competence is defined as "the ability to perform to the standard required in employment across a range of circumstances and to meet changing needs" (QCA). Standards for Work with Parents

The National Occupational Standards for Work with Parents were developed in consultation with the sector and approved by the UK Regulatory bodies (QCA, SQA, ACCAC and QCA NI) on 26 April 2005. They apply to Work with Parents across the four countries of the UK.

National Occupational Standards for Family Learning were also developed and were approved at the same time. There is some common ground between the two sets of standards.

The standards can be used to:

• Recognise previously acquired competences
• Identify knowledge and skills gaps
• Benchmark practice against the standards
• Ensure training is relevant to job roles
• Facilitate self assessment
• Help to develop and retain a more effective workforce
• Support organisational review and planning
• Improve recruitment
• Enable staff to achieve through the workplace

Benefits of using National Occupational Standards

For Organisations:

National Occupational Standards form a ready made set of competencies agreed across the four nations. They can be used to support any organisation to:

• Improve recruitment and the composition of teams through job descriptions, person specifications and effective interviewing
• Ensure staff are clear about their responsibilities and work activities
• Help to develop and retain a skilled, motivated and flexible work force
• Appraise individual performance and provide focused feedback to staff
• Identify knowledge and skills gaps
• Reduce training costs through effective design of learning and development programmes and work based assessment
• Encourage staff to acquire skills and knowledge for enhanced job prospects
• Ensure staff comply with legal and organisational requirements
• Measure performance against clear benchmarks
• Identify priorities for development and improve organisational planning
• Inform discussion about practice
• Use common standards when working in partnership
• Provide evidence for national quality standards, such as Investors in People and Matrix
• Improve customer care

The benefits for workers include:

• Clearly defined job descriptions and responsibility levels
• A benchmark to measure own skills against nationally recognised standards
• Guidance on best practice
• Appraisals which recognise and reward their true levels of skills and competency
• Identifying skills and knowledge gaps
• Training to meet the needs of the individual
• Encouragement to acquire skills and knowledge for enhanced job prospects
• Ability to use the National Occupational Standards to gain recognised qualifications
• Undertake work based assessment, which does not involve extensive time away on courses
• Job satisfaction, which comes from confidence in one's own standards of performance

Download the National Occupational Standards for Work with Parents.

Download the Work With Parents Functional Map (2010)

Work with Parents NOS

Should you have any questions about the NOS, please contact lucy.akhtar@childreninwales.org.uk