Independent evaluation of the One Children's Workforce Tool

Kushner, Saville; Oliver, Billie; Benjamin, Cathy; Last, Kathryn; Gulati, Anita; Dalrymple, Jane; Davies, John Dwyfor; Eke, Richard

Abstract

The One Children’s Workforce Tool (OCWT) was developed by the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) in 2008 within the One Children’s Workforce Framework. The Framework describes what a reformed and joined-up workforce should look like at local level, and focuses on how the Every Child Matters outcomes for children and young people can be supported by the workforce. The University of the West of England, Bristol was commissioned in September, 2009 to evaluate the use, context and impact of the One Children’s Workforce Tool (OCWT). The task of the evaluation was to assess the extent to which the Tool is able to support Children’s Trusts in facing the challenge of integrating the children’s workforce. The evaluation was carried out between September 2009 and June 2010. A mixed method approach ensured validation and verification of the data throughout the process. The evaluation team concluded that: There is a role for CWDC in providing more effective support for implementation and taking a leadership role in a context of warranted diversity across Children’s Trusts;
The Tool provides a site for practitioners to negotiate across professional boundaries, easing one of the historical obstacles to ‘joined-up working’;
Although the Tool facilitates dialogue and collaborative learning, the absence of appropriate feedback mechanisms and the reliance on light self-reporting means significant information loss to CWDC and its partners;
Children’s Trusts are generating cultures of change, and where they are the

• Report Type: Project Report
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Oct 25, 2010
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Children's Workforce, integrated working, One Children's Workforce Tool (OCWT)
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/977595
• Contract Date: Apr 13, 2016