In April 2008, the Department for Children, Schools and Families published Building Brighter Futures: Next steps for the children’s workforce. This took stock of progress so far and established an Expert Group, made up of professional, experts and representatives from across the workforce, to review the evidence and advise the Government on the development of a long term strategy for the children and young people’s workforce.
The 2020 Children and Young People’s Workforce Strategy (DCSF) published in December 2008 is the result of that work. It sits in the context of legislation being taken forward in 2009 to strengthen the legal framework for local Children’s Trust arrangements and of measures announced in December 2008 to improve the inspection and monitoring of local arrangements to safeguard children. It sets out the vision of the Government and the Expert Group that everyone who works with children and young people should be:
The measures set out in the 2020 Strategy are relevant to everyone working in, leading or managing the children and young people’s workforce. The Strategy was developed collaboratively by all key Government Departments with responsibility for improving services for children and young people, including: the Department of Health; the Department of Culture, Media and Sport; the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills; the Home Office; the Ministry of Justice and the Cabinet Office; and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
The 2020 strategy describes how the Government will work with partners, over the next 12 years, to ensure that everyone in the workforce receives the support and development they need to achieve this vision, and to meet the recruitment, retention, status, training and reward challenges we will all face. It also considers and looks ahead to what children and young people will need from the people who support them a decade from now, rather than thinking only about today.
This includes reforms for the whole workforce, and targeted reforms and development for parts of the workforce. Clear priorities are set on the basis that all parts of the workforce are equally important, but that some face particular challenges – and addresses important questions about how we should work together, and how that working together affects us and the children and young people we support.
The strategy recognises that leaders and managers in all parts of the workforce have increasingly complex roles, requiring them to be able to set a clear vision for services which can improve outcomes for children and young people, to manage increasingly integrated provision and people from a range of different professional and occupational backgrounds.
The measures set out in the 2020 Strategy are relevant to everyone in the children and young people’s workforce, whichever sector or part of the workforce they are in. They set a clear strategic framework within which every part of the workforce can be appropriately supported and developed.
The priorities set out in the 2020 Strategy have been agreed across Government and are being taken forward in partnership with relevant departments as well as with relevant workforce support and representative organisations.
With the support of the National Children and Young People’s Workforce Partnership, the Government will review progress in delivery and set out priorities for the next three years in 2011, and every three years afterwards to 2020.
The links below provide more information:
National 2020 Children and Young People’s Workforce Strategy – Summary
Reforms for the Whole Workforce
Sector-specific reform and development
National 2020 Strategy – evidence base
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