The Children’s Workforce Development Council. The UK Sector Skills Council (SSC) for social care, children, early years and young people is called Skills for Care and Development. It was licensed on 1 February 2005. The partner organisations that comprise the SSC are the Care Council for Wales (CCW); the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC); the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and in England, Skills for Care (SfC) representing adult social care and the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC). The Children’s Workforce Development Council1: • aims to improve the lives of children and young people. It does this by ensuring that the people working with children have the best possible training, qualifications, support and advice. It will also help children and young people's organisations and services to work together so that the child is at the centre of all services • is one of five bodies forming the UK Skills For Care and Development Sector Skills Council and coordinates the Children's Workforce Network. • is led by employers through a board of 25 representatives from organisations across its range of sectors. It acts as a partner and critical friend of the government carrying forward the results from the paper Every Child Matters. It works closely with the DfES to determine the direction of workforce reforms and to identify skill shortages. CWDC has responsibility for addressing the skills, workforce and productivity challenges of a total footprint amounting to around 500,000 (80% employees, 20% self-employed). In addition, it is likely that there are at least 250,000 volunteers in the sector, though accurate estimates are hard to establish. There are some ambiguities over precise definitions but broadly the footprint includes the following occupational groups2: Early Years: • Managers, their deputies and assistants, and all those working in early years provision in:
