Regulators Join To Promote Working Together In Children’s Services

The organisations that regulate two million nurses, teachers and social workers have joined forces to help promote a shared approach to improving services for children and young people.

The General Social Care Council (GSCC), the General Teaching Council for England (GTC) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have drafted a statement of values for wider discussion.

The goal is to help professionals work together more effectively in the interests of children and young people.

The joint statement was developed in response to discussions with practising nurses, midwives, teachers and social workers who were keen to work together and felt that this was most effective when there was a shared understanding of each others’ professional values, as well as ways of working.

The GTC, NMC and GSCC want the joint statement to be a practical tool that will help practitioners to build services around the needs of the child or young person. It asks social workers, nurses and teachers to commit themselves to upholding children’s rights, to involving families in the decisions that affect them and to learn and make use of each others’ areas of expertise.

The three organisations are now seeking feedback and support from individual practitioners who work with children and young people, from children and young people themselves and from other organisations representing or regulating professionals who work with them. People are asked to comment on the statement itself and also on the ways it could be used to support joint working. The GSCC, GTC and NMC are keen to explore the potential of the statement to be a resource for all children’s practitioners as well as their own.

A joint website provides an opportunity for feedback, expressions of support and suggestions for taking the joint work forward.

GTC Director of Policy and Research Sarah Stephens said: “Teachers have told us that they are genuinely enthusiastic about the new agenda for children’s services which recognises children’s needs for safety, well being and enjoyment as well as achievement. Through the statement we hope to reflect the values that brought them into teaching in the first place and to confirm that those values are shared by the other professions they now need to work with day to day.

“We now hope that as wide a cross section as possible of those working with children and young people will post their comments about the statement and how it might be used to support their work.”

NMC Chief Executive, Sarah Thewlis said: “The Nursing and Midwifery Council is pleased to be involved in this pioneering work with the GTC and GSCC since many nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses work with children and young people.

“This statement creates a platform for a discussion with other organisations who share similar values. Inter-professional work can be challenging, with many practical difficulties to overcome, and the statement provides a valuable and unifying starting point “

GSCC Chief Executive, Lynne Berry said: “The General Social Care Council is proud of the fact that we now have over 70,000 Registered Social Workers. We help to ensure high standards of conduct and of practice. But we know that social workers increasingly work in multi-agency settings and that it is very important to service users that they work effectively alongside their professional colleagues.

“That is why we have worked with the General Teaching Council and the Nursing & Midwifery Council to produce this draft statement of values for professionals who work with children and young people. We hope that it provokes a wide-ranging debate.”

The three organisations want the statement to have as wide a reach as possible. Over the next three months they will be working to secure the engagement of children and young people, children’s practitioners and professional organisations in a critical dialogue about professional values.

These discussions will explore potential uses of the statement and engage with other bodies who may wish to endorse it. Views will also be sought from parents about the statement and their expectations of joint working between the professions.