National Strategy for the Development of the Social Service Workforce 2005-2010: A plan for action

Response from Scottish Pre-school Play Association

Scottish Pre-School Play Association (SPPA ) fully subscribes to the vision of a confident, competent and valued social service workforce and welcomes the invitation to respond to the draft national strategy for the development of the workforce.

SPPA is Scotland’s largest voluntary sector provider of direct support services to community led childcare organisations, covering the length and breadth of the country, delivering essential support and guidance services to providers of pre-school education and childcare services, including all-day care groups, playgroups, parent and toddler groups and under-fives groups in Scotland.
SPPA is a registered charity.

SPPA has a 40 year track record of working with children and families, encompassing many of the most disadvantaged groups in the country, including families on low income, ethnic minority families, lone parent families and families affected by social or rural isolation. SPPA works closely with parents, early years providers, regulators, local authorities and Childcare Partnerships, as well as training providers and other early years umbrella organisations. It provides input to national and local consultations, working groups and policy forums.

Question 1
Does the strategy clearly set out the current context and need for development of the workforce? If not, how could this be improved?
The draft strategy clearly sets out the current context for the social services sector and rightly acknowledges the complexities of the social service work and the challenges facing the sector, in the coming years.

Those working in Early Education and Childcare sector are alert
to the complexities and challenges, as they affect this particular part of the social service workforce. All parts, statutory, voluntary and private, have demonstrated a willingness to embrace the notion of workforce planning and development that has led, among other things, to:
• widening of access to qualifications
• increased numbers of qualified, or working towards a qualification, early education and childcare workers
• new /revised qualifications that support lateral as well as vertical career development/progression
• clearer careers pathways emerging
• improved conditions for some workers within the sector
• the sector beginning to shape its future through being actively involved in policy forums, consultations, working groups and the like.

The SSSC consultations have been thorough in exploring the workforce needs of early education and childcare sector, and SPPA applauds its willingness to recognise the distinctiveness and complexity of the work involved. Through its work , the sector’s awareness of being part of the social service workforce is improving. However, if this is to move beyond awareness, confidence must be established within

The early education and childcare sector that it is regarded as an integral part of the broader concept of social care. For the strategy to be relevant to this part of the sector, the profile of early years work must be emphasised and remain high on the social service agenda otherwise it will largely be seen as relating to social work and social care and not applicable those working with children in the early years. Allied to this, SPPA is concerned that the divide between early education and childcare is not perpetuated. Much work has been done to show the interdependence of care, playing, learning and development in working with young children. For early education and childcare workers they are inextricably linked. The strategy needs to give a clearer indication of the interfaces with the teaching and educational professionals.

The strategy speaks of the role of sector skills councils. SPPA would be reassured if more information about a Sector Skills Council for early education and childcare was forthcoming. There has been considerable delay, since the demise of the NTO for Early Years, in setting up an SSC for early years. SPPA is aware of SSSC’s work with other UK wide organisations to progress the situation. However, information about what has happened is sparse and it is not clear how it will operate and function, in order to represent Scottish interests. The commitment to work with other SSCs in associated services is welcomed.

It is unclear in Scotland how the 10 Year Strategy for Childcare 2004, announced by Gordon Brown, will affect the sector but its statement that ‘working with pre-school children should have as much status as a profession as teaching children in schools’ and the proposal to extend provision perhaps add additional challenges to the strategy. Similarly, the emerging debate in Scotland about pedagogy and the changing nature of childcare and early education services may also influence the content and delivery of training and development opportunities for the early years workforce in the future. It may shift opinion about where early education and childcare sit in terms of overarching/regulatory bodies and consequently the type of training and qualifications needed, and how and who delivers them. Employers and training providers will have to address skill gaps not identified in the strategy, for example, understanding pedagogy, working with babies and our youngest of children, working effectively with parents and families, understanding and implementing effective inclusion strategies, business and development planning and project management skills.

The flexibility portrayed in the strategy and the acknowledgement of the diversity of the sector offers reassurance and SPPA welcomes this as a recognition that childcare and early education services will not be the same across the country. The strategy recognises a mixture of service providers and encourages creative solutions to developing a versatile and skilled workforce to deliver quality services best suited to user needs. SPPA is well positioned to contribute to developing creative solutions, but is constrained by limited resources and capacity.

Question 2
Is the document helpful for:
• organisations
• managers
• employees
• other key stakeholders e.g. SSSC, education and training providers (please specify)
• how could it be improved and focused?

The subject matter is complex, but generally the document is easy to read. It is lengthy and summaries of each section would have been helpful to gaining an overview. The action points are helpful as they give a sense of an active dynamic strategy and timescale. The strategy is a welcome output of the National Working Group, although SPPA would make the point that the remit and work of the NWG is not widely known.

Whilst SPPA appreciates the need for the strategy to refer to the broad concept of social care, from our perspective it would be helpful to emphasise more clearly throughout the document that early education and childcare is a significant component of the social care workforce. In reading the document the emphasis appears to be placed on social work and associated social care services. It needs to place a stronger emphasis on early education and childcare services being a constituent part of the social service work and workforce. Without this, early years providers and workers may be deterred from reading it and realising that the strategy relates to them.
The document is helpful to organisations and key stakeholders because it clearly sets out the vision for the future and brings to their attention the need to consider workforce planning and development as an integral component of:
• organisational development and sustainability
• resource allocation
• delivering government, national and local, policy agenda
• raising profile and status.

It is very helpful to those (including some managers) who have a strategic role in planning and delivering services although as a document SPPA feels that it will be less useful to first line managers and employees who operate at the front line. There concerns lie closer to the operational and personal level and it might be more useful to provide them with a summary of the strategy’s key points and more information about what it will mean for them in practice, particularly line managers who will be key drivers in encouraging the workforce to engage with the strategy.

The publishing of Codes of Practice (SSSC) for employers and employees is a significant first step towards offering employers and employees clear statements about their responsibilities and what is expected of them. SPPA welcomes the intention to investigate compliance with the codes during inspection. However, it is aware that more work has to be done to help both employers and employees understand the implications for practice and SPPA anticipates that some organisations and individuals will require help from, for example, SPPA, to understand and implement the codes.

It should also be noted that many providers in the early education and child care sector are small scale providers and employers. The workforce is fragmented and underpaid. Many perhaps will not see themselves as supporting the implementation of government strategy. The role of local authorities, Childcare Partnerships and umbrella organisations, like SPPA, will be vital to encouraging these small providers employers and employees to engage with the strategy and to see themselves a key contributors to achieving a highly skilled, dynamic and confident workforce.

The strategy anticipates an increase in demand for services and consequently an expansion of the workforce. SPPA doubts whether the strategy document by itself will attract new recruits. A targeted, multi-faceted campaign to attract suitable candidates to work in the sector will be needed.

Question 3
Does the strategy provide sufficient signposting to other key documents and sources of information on factors that impact on workforce development for:
• organisations
• managers
• employees
• other key stakeholders (please specify)
• if not, what is missing?

The strategy makes very useful and helpful links to other key documents and sources of information that will enable users of the strategy to adopt a more holistic approach to work force planning and development. In doing so it highlights the need for flexible and creative solutions and emphasises the need for more integrated and multi-agency working. It also serves to highlight the multi-faceted nature of the sector and the need for a social care workforce that is highly skilled and flexible enough to match the demands placed on it. For example, in early years, because of the nature and pattern of the work, many staff can be engaged in a number of jobs, paid and unpaid, that covers different parts of the sector. They have a portfolio of job roles and responsibilities, for example, as a playleader, childminder, out of school worker and youth club worker. The outcomes of Review of the Early Years and Child Care Workforce, due to report later this year, will undoubtedly raise specific issues that will need to be addressed within the strategy.

The inclusion of the provision of training and development in the SSSC’s Codes of Practice is a welcome requirement. However, it must be realised that this will place additional burdens on the resources of small organisations and employers, many of whom will also need support to help them understand their responsibilities under the Code. The human resource function, as referred to in the document is unlikely to exist for many small organisations. SPPA, and similar umbrella organisations will have key role in helping them to establish policies, procedures and practices that will foster a commitment to workforce learning and development. The intention to produce a best practice ‘toolkit’ is welcomed and SPPA looks forward to being consulted about its content.

Question 4
Are the outcomes that the strategy is seeking to achieve sufficiently clear? If not, what needs to be improved?
Yes, the hoped for outcomes of the strategy are sufficiently clear and it also goes some way to identify the inputs needed to support implementation of the strategy. In doing this, it provides guidance to all stakeholders about what is expected of them and emphasises that all parts of the sector need to engage with the strategy if the hoped for outcomes are to be achieved. SPPA fully endorses the point that organisations need to consider workforce planning and workforce development as a key component of organisational strategic and operational planning. However, it also recognises that for many organisations that this will be difficult unless resource opportunities are made available and accessible to them.

Question 5
Does the strategy set out clearly enough what needs to be done to ensure effective workforce development by:
• organisations
• managers
• employees
• other stakeholders (please specify)
• if not, what could be set out more clearly
• are there key stakeholders missing?

The strategy is ambitious and challenging to stakeholders. It rightly identifies where roles and responsibilities lie, both in strategic and operational terms. It identifies the need to develop a coherent and understandable infrastructure for qualifications, career pathways and progression routes. It promotes the importance and value of learning, not only in term of the benefits for organisations and the economy but also for users of service and individuals within the workforce. The context of life long learning and establishing learning culture is very welcome.

The strategy promotes integrated working and engaging in partnership with employers and other related organisations. From SPPA’s perspective it is assumed that this includes active partnership with teaching institutions, professionals and unions.

SPPA has always valued and built on an individual’s learning gained through life and work experiences and it is particularly pleased to note within the strategy the recognition of prior learning, both formal and informal. SPPA eagerly anticipates the guidelines so that it can support the process.

Question 6
Are actions identified in the strategy the right ones:
• for employers
• for employees
• for other key stakeholders (please specify)?

The strategy identifies a number of actions points dealing with a range of key areas on a number of fronts that will support the implementation of the strategy
SPPA welcomes the initiative to identify criteria for supporting the voluntary and private sector and to simplify funding streams. Actions planned towards a more coherent and understandable qualifications/career pathway are long overdue and the commitment to engage with employers, SSCs and other key stakeholders will promote shared understanding and better integrated services.

SPPA welcomes actions to diversify the workforce and to give credit to recognition of prior learning. It endorses the actions that will be taken to promote working in the sector.

SPPA notes the actions for providers, employers and employees. It anticipates playing a key role in supporting early education and childcare services to fulfil their role in helping to implement the strategy and in representing their interests in the wider social service forum.

Question 7
Are the timescales for achieving implementation of the actions realistic? Are there specific elements that could not be delivered within the timescales:
• for organisations
• for employees
• for other key stakeholders? (please specify)

The strategy is the first stage in steering a major cultural shift in how the social service workforce is perceived. It is will help to raise the profile and status of the sector but to achieve the hoped for outcomes within five years, appears to SPPA to be ambitious.

Five years appears to offer a reasonable timescale to kick start and embed many of the key concepts of the strategy into the social service work culture and practice, if sufficient resources are made available. Five years should enable, again if sufficient resources are made available, a coherent and representative infrastructure to be established to support the development of a workforce that can deliver high quality, person centred services, and which is flexible, adaptable and responsive to change.

SPPA emphasises the diversity, fragmentation and complexity across and within specific components of the sector. There are lots of small provider/employers, there is a lack of coherence within the sector and inter-agency working is still beset with professional jealousies, boundaries and misunderstandings. There is a poor history of investing in training and development in the sector, many of the jobs being part-time, low paid and perceived as low-skilled. Even where resources have been made available many employers have not appreciated the value of investing in this sector of the workforce. The social care workforce, including early education and childcare workers, are generally perceived as low status and in some cases poor academic achievers. Indeed many career/employment advisers and teachers steer the less academic into this area of work. There is a lack of understanding about the sector and its workforce needs. A concerted effort has to be made to ‘educate’ service providers, employers, employees, potential employees and other stakeholders, including training providers, to enable them to understand and plan appropriately for workforce development.

There will be many other factors affecting timescales for example, cultures within organisations, starting points of organisations and individuals within the workforce, the ability to manage change, the resource capacity of small organisations, the pressures on voluntary sector managers and the willingness to engage with the strategy are but a few things that must also be taken into account when looking at timescales. It has to be accepted that parts of the sector will progress faster than others. Some will take longer than five years.

SPPA is doubtful if five years is sufficient time to implement the whole strategy but is hopeful that within the period that much progress can be made towards achieving its goals.

Question 8
Are there specific barriers to implementing this strategy:
• for organisations
• for managers
• for employee
• for other key stakeholders? (please specify)

What actions would help overcome these?

SPPA identifies a number of very real barriers to implementing the strategy:
• the capacity of the sector to meet the demand for training and qualifications: are there enough training providers to provide training and qualifications to the required standard? Increasing the numbers of people in the workforce is not in itself sufficient. What guarantees are there for quality? Market forces are not sufficient to guarantee quality. There must be robust systems of quality assurance and inspection throughout the sector.
• the lack of understanding organisations, employers and professional organisations have about qualifications and the value they place on them. The SQCF will help to address this. It will require an immense awareness raising and educating exercise to be done with employers, including local authority employers, and training providers to explain the framework and qualification structures so that they understand and are able to make meaningful comparisons of qualifications and qualification/career pathways. It will require some cultural shifts of professional perceptions.
• the ability of parts of the sector to allocate training and development costs into their limited and often overstretched budgets, for example a playgroup which is not in partnerships with a local authority is reliant on the fees paid by parents and fundraising to operate. Many organisations struggle to release staff, to pay wages, let alone pay towards training and development. Where they are able to contribute, the hidden associated cost of bringing in a relief worker is an added burden. For many voluntary sector providers, there is also the fear of receiving little return on investment as many find that staff, once qualified, often leave to find a better paid job elsewhere.
• the attainment potential of persons entering the social service workforce is generally perceived to be low. Much work has to be done, not least with schools and careers guidance staff, to shift the perception of the work as being for those less able or academic. Recent developments, for example, higher entry requirement for national certificate courses and awards, higher qualifications relating to working with children and the introduction of degree courses etc are beginning to address some of this
• the expectation that individuals invest their own time and money is problematic when viewed in the context of the very low pay rates of some of those working in the sector
• the level of pay within the sector has to be addressed but the reality for many providers in the sector, particularly voluntary providers, is that unless their financial capacity is increased and made more secure their ability to improve pay is severely limited. There ability to recruit and retain staff who are qualified is severely hampered.
• the plethora of funding streams available to support workforce development can be confusing and an inordinate amount of time is spent by organisations, employers and individuals trying to access funding. Funding streams need to be rationalised and streamlined to make accessing funding support for workforce development easier.

Question 9
Do you have any practice examples which could be used to illustrate the key points in the strategy?
Do these fit:? Do we need two?

Example 1
SPPA through its work with voluntary sector early education and child care providers fosters workforce planning and development in a range of early years settings. Through a team of development workers, training opportunities, publications, code of practice and helpline advice the organisation provides information, support and guidance on
• business planning
• fair and safe recruitment and management practices
• policy development, including employment, staff training and development policies
• training and qualification opportunities and career pathways
• registration of the workforce
• funding sources for training and development.
In response to demand SPPA is also providing management services, including induction, supervision and performance appraisal for staff in groups who request it. Elsewhere, it is working directly with voluntary managers to support best practice in business planning, employment, training and development matters. SPPA recommends the SSSC’s Codes of Practice to early years providers and supplies copies when it provides model contracts of employment. It includes references to the codes in its support materials.
Partnership with local authorities, active involvement with Childcare Partnerships and engagement with local enterprises has enabled SPPA to promote and implement workforce development planning with voluntary managed early education and childcare providers. Currently 1465 employees (64%) in SPPA groups are qualified or working towards a qualification.

Example 2
Organisationally SPPA is committed to staff training and development and uses review and planning sessions and personal appraisal to address workforce development needs. SPPA has adopted the SSSC’s the Codes of Practice. All employees receive copies with their contracts of employment and it is discussed at induction. SPPA has a staff training and development policy which states clearly the organisation’s commitment to staff development and specifies the range of support the organisation can offer, including financial, time-off for study or exams and resources.
SPPA’s strategic plan for 2004-8 has a clearly defined key goal to develop its human capacity. Supporting staff to achieve qualifications and to pursue CPD opportunities feature strongly in action points. It offers, amongst other things, shadowing, action learning, team inservice, participation in working/planning groups, in its repertoire of tools to support staff development.

Question 10
Any other points or issues that you wish to make regarding the strategy?

It is a welcome and ambitious strategy to which SPPA can ascribe and play a vital role.
In recognition of the composition of the sector, SPPA anticipates that many small organisation, providers and employers will need a range of support and guidance to enable them to play their part in implementing the strategy. SPPA, as the national umbrella organisation for voluntary sector early education and childcare services, can play a key role in providing this support. It is hoped that sufficient resources will be made available to enable the organisation to assist. It is well positioned to represent and advocate on behalf of this part of the sector and to bring its knowledge and
understanding of small scale, voluntary managed early education and childcare services to support the implementation of the strategy.

Margaret Brunton
Senior Development Officer (Training Development)
Scottish Pre-school Play Association
45 Finnieston Street
Glasgow
G3 8JU

Tel no: O141 221 4148
Email: margaret.brunton@sppa.org.uk
Date: 2.10.03