Children in Wales were invited by Lifelong learning UK to host the launch in Wales of the UK wide Occupational Standards for Work with Parents and the Occupational standards for Family Learning in October 2005. The standards have been developed by Parenting UK in England with funding from DFES and support from Lifelong Learning UK.

These Standards will be for use by employers in establishing quality of delivery and content in parenting support services. As part of this programme there is an agreement across the three regulators in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (QCA, DELLS, CCEA) to develop a jointly regulated framework of units and qualifications that will be underpinned by a credit system – the Qualification and Credit Framework (QCF). 

New units and qualifications based on the NOS for Work with Parents will be piloted shortly to test out the application of credit in the context of the new framework.

Parenting UK, The Parenting Forum Northern Ireland and LLUK (the Sector Skills Council for the Work with Parents Sector) and City & Guilds have been successful in their submission to Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) to test the new Work with Parents units and qualifications within the new Qualifications and Credit Framework. The units will be operationally ready for use in June 2007 and will be tested and trailed with learners from September 2007 – April 2008. 

The units and qualifications are aimed at practitioners who may be new to this area of work and those who already have some of the necessary knowledge and skills. The latter group include for example, health visitors, social workers, clinical and educational psychologists, education welfare workers, youth justice workers and CAFCASS teams.  The achievement of these units and qualifications are important to the voluntary and community sector for a number of reasons:

• Practitioners will be equipped with the skills and knowledge to undertake their work
• A progression pathway for the sector will be established
• Practitioners will be able to achieve transferable units, which may help progression around the sector and into other areas.

Please contact Lucy Akhtar, Parenting Development Officer for further information Tel@ 029 2034 2434

Currently the standards are available in English only, so Children In Wales’s Fforwm Magu Plant will be making representations regarding this to the UK steering group.

Click here to read the standards for Work with Parents.

Click here to read the Standards for Family Learning.