ANALYSIS: Training - A divided vision of a skills council

Smashing down the barriers between the professions under the children and young people's services banner was a major plank of the green paper, Every Child Matters.

The chapter on workforce reform put forward a number of proposals to overhaul the sector, many of which are every bit as revolutionary as the plans for children's trusts and restructuring local government. One of the ideas suggested was for the creation of a sector skills council for children and young people's services. But five months on from the green paper's publication, the idea is dead in the water (YPN, 4-10 February, p2).

The proposed skills council would have resulted in a single employer-led agency responsible for improving the knowledge of workers in the somewhat disjointed children and young people's services sector. It was to be the last word in training policy for youth workers, Connexions staff, youth justice workers and social workers among others.