News
The Changing Role Of The Children's Workforce Network
On Thursday 10th September the CWN Board met to consider the future of the Network in the light of recent changes to the workforce environment.
The new National Children and Young People’s Partnership now meets regularly to support and challenge government policy and DCSF has brought all its work on the workforce for children into one Workforce Group, ensuring that workforce issues for the whole of the children’s workforce are considered together; and the government has reviewed the remits of several workforce development organisations including extending the work of the National College to include leadership in children’s services and the migration of NAPP’s work to CWDC.
Taking account of these shifts at the Board meeting we considered the future of the Network and how best to ensure that integrated workforce development continues across the workforce as effectively as possible.
Board members agreed that CWN has achieved real partnership working over the past four years. The products created by these partnerships have true value for people working with children and young people. For example, the shared principles and values for integrated children and young people’s services and for induction, and the emerging IQF, will support integrated services well into the future.
We concluded that with these changes in the workforce environment and the strength of partnerships created through CWN current and future work can be delivered successfully through different arrangements. We believe that there is no longer any need for regular CWN Board meetings and we have commissioned the project team to undertake work to enable a formal decision on this to be made in December 2009.
Veronica Wellington, Vicky Witter and Fiona Murray are the members of the CWDC cross sector team that supports CWN activity. They will be collaborating with CWN project leads and other CWN partners to develop arrangements that will make sure that projects transition and continue effectively in the future.
I would like to thank Board members for the professional and constructive way they arrived at their conclusion that CWN has achieved much of what it set out to do, and can safely allow activity to continue in the absence of Board meetings.
Hilary Emery
Interim Chair, CWN