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Skills for Health is undertaking a review of the National Occupational
Standards (NOS) for specialist workers who work with adult substance users.
The NOS, first developed with stakeholders in 2005, are being reviewed
by a working group consisting of service user organisations and stakeholders
who work in substance use services. A steering group is overseeing the
project, consisting of members from the four UK nation government
departments and chaired by Carole Sharma, chief executive of the Federation
of Drug and Alcohol Professionals (FDAP). ‘Stakeholders will welcome the
review of the NOS for the substance misuse sector as it is vital that the
standards reflect what workers are currently doing as part of their practice,’
she says.
This review is to ensure that the NOS reflect up-to-date practice in the
field of substance use and that workers who wish to use the NOS are
working to a set of defined standards. The project working group includes
members from the four UK nations, and the revised NOS will reflect common
practice right across them.
The drug and alcohol NOS, commonly known as DANOS are widely used
across the health, care and justice sectors. NOS can be used for a variety of
purposes, all of which lead to the development of a particular workforce.
The DANOS have been used to underpin nationally accredited qualifications,
such as:
• the level 3 diploma in health and social care and level 3 SVQ in
health and social care, which assess competence against the NOS
• the level 3 and level 4 awards and certificates in working with
substance misuse.
They are also used:
• to develop new roles for the sector
• in frameworks for staff development
• to improve standards of practice across the sector by organisations
such as FDAP
• to develop a variety of bespoke training and education programmes.
The working group, chaired by John Jolly of Blenheim CDP, has been working
to update the standards and they will be available for consultation until 30
September 2013. A consultation for service users will also be available and
their responses will inform the final content of the updated NOS. This
consultation will run until 12 September 2013.
Once final versions of the NOS have been approved by the UK
Commission for Employment and Skills, they will be accessible via the Skills
for Health competence tools.
For further information about both the service user and NOS consultations
and the Skills for Health tools, visit the Skills for Health website
www.skillsforhealth.org.uk or email danos@skillsforhealth.org.uk
Skills for Health is the sector skills council for all health employers – NHS,
independent and third sector – and acts as the voice for employers working in
the healthcare sector.
Nadine Singh is manager of NOS, qualifications, apprenticeships, products
and services at Skills for Health
SKILLS UPDATE
What’s the latest on
professional training?
Nadine Singh
explains
the DANOS review
REVIEW
Letters |
Skills for Health
August 2013 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 11
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
4SF, between 10.30am and 3.00pm,
is open to all who want to drop in.
Lunch and (of course birthday cake!)
will be provided.
As Paul Hammond, Phoenix and
NORCAS service manager says, ‘Over
the last year alone NORCAS has
worked with 8,342 adult and youth
clients across Norfolk and Suffolk, and
positively impacted the lives of many
more through educational events. We
want to thank the local community for
the support they’ve provided us to
help so many local people make
positive changes in their lives.’
For more information go to
www.phoenix-futures.org.uk/phoenix-
norcas/ or contact me on
bob.campbell@phoenix-futures.org.uk
Bob Campbell, special projects
officer, Phoenix Futures
HELP THE AGED
I have been trying to raise the profile
of alcohol misuse in older people for
some years, particularly as my own
clinical service covers a population
that has a rate of alcohol-related
deaths in the 75-plus age group that is
more than twice the national average.
Older people with alcohol problems
remain caught between services.
Luckily for me, I managed to gain
additional skills in substance misuse
and integrate these into a mainstream
mental health of older adults service.
I would be interested to know
whether practitioners see this as a
growing clinical and public health
problem and what is being done to
tackle this problem in their local
area or region.
Dr Tony Rao, consultant old age
psychiatrist and chair of Royal
College of Psychiatrists Substance
Misuse Working Group
HOW LUCKY WE ARE
Reading the coverage of the
International Harm Reduction
Conference really brought it home
how lucky we are in the UK (
DDN
,
July issue).
Sadly I was unable to attend in
person but by reading the
DDN Daily
updates
and the special issue I was
able to get a real sense of the
genuinely life-threatening situations
that users in many countries face. It
once again reinforced the indisputable
fact that harm reduction saves lives.
To have the luxury of debating the
individual nature of recovery and
patient choice is something that
many of the speakers at the
conference must dream about, and
we would do well to remember that.
While the stories of the ongoing
battle to have their drug use
recognised as a health issue, and the
ongoing human rights abuses were
as harrowing as ever, there did seem
some cause for cautious optimism.
The, albeit slowly, changing
political acceptance that harm
reduction works, the increasing high-
profile support and, most importantly,
the untiring work of the activists
working across the world do give you
hope that things will get better. I
would like to thank both Harm
Reduction International for having the
courage to hold this unique event,
and
DDN
for providing coverage to
everyone unable to attend.
J Spence, by email
DDN provided daily magazines
for the International Harm
Reduction Conference 2013 in
Vilnius. These and the August
DDN coverage can be read at
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com.
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