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 have also been developed and were approved at the same time. There is some common ground between the two sets of standards and because they have been approved at the same time, qualifications can be developed which take account of skills and knowledge common to both areas of work.

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

Why have the National Occupational Standards for Work with Parents been introduced?

In January 2005, Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) became the new Sector Skills Council with a footprint in the community based learning and development sector. Prior to 2005, PAULO was the National Training Organisation and its responsibilities have now been subsumed by LLUK.

In 2003, Paulo received funding to begin developing these Standards for Work with Parents as none previously existed. National Occupational Standards define what a sector agrees to be good practice and can be used in a variety of ways. National Occupational Standards also provide the basis for qualifications such as NVQs, SVQs, and apprenticeships within the sector. Standards have to be developed before these nationally recognised qualifications and awards can be developed. Higher education establishments and other institutions can also use the Standards within their qualifications. This work to develop qualifications is now underway. Go to our Training Page for more information. You can also download the Assessment Strategy setting out the recommendations for the quality control of the Standards .

The Standards were developed following widespread involvement and consultation across the sector in each of the four countries in the UK, and a period of piloting towards the end of 2004 and in early 2005. Download the Mapping for the occupational sector used to inform work to develop the Standards.

The Standards can bring everyone into the "learning cycle". Unlike the qualifications which are based on them, the National Occupational Standards themselves are not set at levels. They define the competence, skills, knowledge and understanding required by those who work with parents and can be used to develop and monitor these requirements in individuals and services.

For example, by using the National Occupational Standards a set of skills and learning objectives can be drawn up, which is agreed between the individual, their supervisor and training specialists as a "prescription" for a development programme.

Benefits of using National Occupational Standards

For Organisations:

National Occupational Standards form a ready made, nationally agreed set of competencies. 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

For Individuals:

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

What do the National Occupational Standards for Work with Parents look like?

The NOS for Work with Parents are made up of:

• Principles and values. All work should be undertaken in accordance with the identified principles and values
• Units which describe an area of work
• Elements which give detailed descriptions of the activities for the area of work
• Performance criteria which describe the competence performance that needs to be achieved
• Knowledge and understanding which describes what the person needs to know and understand in order to perform to the National Occupational Standard
• Links to Key and Core Skills
• Glossary of some of the words used in the unit

Each competence is designed to address a discrete area of responsibility which a practitioner working with parents may be asked to undertake. These are the sort of responsibilities you are likely to find on a job description, for example: "Take responsiblity for the safety and security of parents, staff and environments" or "Work with parents with complex needs who find services hard to reach".

The Principles and Values of the Work with Parents* sector are:

• Parenting education and support should reflect the rights of the child set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) ratified by the UK in December 1991
• Practitioners work in partnership with parents at all times
• Mothers, fathers and those in a parenting role are acknowledged as having unique knowledge and information about their children
• Children are the responsibility of the wider society as well as their families
• Work with Parents should be non-judgemental and anti-discriminatory and should seek to empower by building on and valuing parents' existing strengths, knowledge and experience
• Parenting education and support should be available to, and practitioners should engage with, all those in a parenting role
• Gender, cultural diversity and different needs must be respected; entitlement, quality and inclusiveness are of fundamental importance to those who work with parents
• Anyone who works with parents should have specific training for that purpose
• Good practice requires reflection and a continuing search for improvement

*Throughout these National Occupational Standards, the term 'parents' has been used to mean mothers, fathers, carers and other adults with responsibility for caring for a child. A range of parenting services which meet the National Occupational Standards should be available for all those in a parenting role, including step parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, grandparents or other family carers, gay and lesbian parents and their partners, residential care workers, and carers of young offenders in secure units.

Download the National Occupational Standards for Work with Parents.

Piloting New Units and Qualifications based on the National Occupational Standards for Work with Parents

In November 2005 the government established a UK Vocational Qualification Reform programme. 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). This system will support the accumulation and transfer of credit achievement, and as part of the process of establishing the new framework, there is agreement across the three regulators to test and trial the processes needed to revise the current national qualifications framework. This work is in two phases and will be completed in May 2008.