On Monday 27 April the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), in partnership with the Local Government Association (LGA) and Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC), opens a 12 week consultation on draft data standards for the children's workforce. The closing date is Friday 17 July.
The draft standards are of a set of data items which can be used to collect information about the Children, Young People's and Local Government workforce in a standardised way. Their purpose is to provide consistency in the definition, meaning and use of data about this workforce. It is intended that, by providing standard definitions to those who commission, build, populate and analyse data systems, including collections and surveys, the quality of information about the Children, Young People's and Local Government workforce will improve over time as these new standards are used in new collections.
The workforce covered by these data definitions is the Education, Skills and Children’s Services sector, including both those directly employed by public sector organisations such as local authorities, and those working for agencies or service organisations that may be contracted by local authorities to provide services.
The criteria for including a standard are either if the data is already used in one of the primary central collections about the children’s workforce, or if there is a clear likelihood that this area of data will be collected at some point in the future. The existence of a standard for an item (or items) means that wherever the data is used, it should conform to that definition. The standards do not specify which items are used in a particular context, and each use must have proper business justification.
Relationship to the NMDS-SC
Skills for Care has been closely involved in the development of these draft data standards and the NMDS-SC has been one of the main inputs to the work. Nearly all the draft standards share a definition with, or align closely with, NMDS-SC data items. Where finer detail was required, e.g. to cover some very specific children’s job roles, they can be mapped to the broader NMDS-SC categories.
After consultation, these draft data standards will go though several further processes before being adopted by DCSF. When that happens, it is intend that they will be used in data collections developed in the future. At present, there are no plans to make any changes to the NMDS-SC to reflect these data definitions. However, over time, as the NMDS-SC evolves to reflect the changing social care workforce, changes to NMDS-SC data items or definitions will probably be made to align more closely with these data standards. Like all NMDS-SC changes, these would have to go through the NMDS-SC Change Control Process.
If you would like to take part in the DCSF consultation, please go to www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/
If you would like further information about the relationship with the NMDS-SC, please email nmds@skillsforcare.org.uk