Workforce Development

Medway’s Children’s Trust, in the context of the latest national guidance Building Brighter Futures, aspires to create a world – class children’s workforce to deliver the best outcomes for Medway’s children and young people. We acknowledge the importance of developing our local workforce, and working with parents, carers, children and young people, so that we achieve the aims set out in our Children and Young People’s Plan.

During 2008/09 the Trust worked together to produce workforce strategy that addresses the need for the staff and volunteers who are part of our local workforce to:

Ensure that Medway’s workforce at all times drives the safeguarding agenda for all children and young people

support children, and young people achieve their full potential and reduce inequalities between the most vulnerable and the rest

• be confident and competent in their skills and knowledge, placing the safety of children and young people at the heart of everything they do
• be proud of the work they do, in the knowledge that continuously improving services will bring about real opportunities to build worthwhile careers; and
• secure the confidence, trust and respect of children, young people and their parents/carers for the work that they do
• be responsive to the changing needs of children and young people across all 5 outcomes and in particular focus on our most challenging target areas for improvement.
   

We recognises that whilst everyone has an important role to play in supporting better outcomes it is also essential that the Trust works to develop an integrated and reformed one children’s workforce across all sectors.

An action plan to deliver the strategy has been agreed and through working with the CWDC framework, the actions are designed to create of workforce with:

• Shared identity, purpose and vision
• Common values and language
• Behaviours focused on positive outcomes for children and young people
• Integrated working practices
• High quality, appropriately trained workforce
• Complementary roles focused around children and young people
• Capacity to deliver and keep children safe