National Occupational Standards for Health and Social Care

The Incremental Review of the Children's Care Learning and Development (CCLD) and Health and Social Care (HSC) NOS is now completed and has been submitted to the United Kingdom Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) for formal approval.

 The remit of the review was light touch, this included:

• Addressing ‘banked' errors, received since their accreditation in 2005.
• To address any omissions, identified since 2005.
• Duplications in terms of repeated knowledge requirements or competences, identified since 2005.
• Updating of significant gaps due to changes in policy since 2005.
• Update of imports from other Sector Skills Councils

It is anticipated that the reviewed NOS will be available for use January 2009.

In England, Northern Ireland and Wales the revised NOS will not be incorporated  into the current NVQs, but  will, however, provide a base for new qualifications developed  for the Qualification and Credit Framework (QCF), and contribute to the wider use of NOS for workforce planning/management.

Feedback received through the incremental review is noted below and will be banked to inform a future review.

Summary of feedback 

• The view that the content in the Health and Social Care NOS is generally sound.
• Further work is needed to identify gaps which related to the impact of changing roles throughout the health and social care sectors
• Some feedback about presentation, language and some of the range of elements within NOS not being applicable to changing roles. 
• Significant comments were received relating to NVQ ‘assessment issues' which will be addressed separately to the review of the NOS
• Need to recognise the impact of changes to qualifications frameworks across the UK
• Ensuring alignment between the NOS and any subsequent qualifications development and the requirements of regulation in the social care sector and any potential regulation of support staff in the health sector.

CWDC would like to thank all colleagues who were involved in the development of the reviewed NOS and specifically the children and young people at the following services: 

• Northamptonshire Local Authority
• Jarrow Day Nursery
• Bolton Shared Care, Local Authority
• Children and Learner's Division, Peterborough
• Families for Children, Laughton
• Calderdale Local Authority
• Together Trust, Cheadle
• Biggleswade Youth Centre
• Women and Girls Centre, Newcastle
• North Tyneside's Children's Fund, North East
• Barnardo's, Newcastle
• Camden, London Local Authority

Download the full NOS participation feedback report [PDF - 2.5 Mb] here.

All colleagues involved in the consultation will be automatically informed of the launch. If you have any questions regarding the standards please contact Abby Beattie (Development Officer - Qualifications).