Common Core of Skills, Knowledge & Understanding and Values for the "Children's Workforce" in Scotland

Benefits of the Common Core - why we need it

Acting on the views of children and young people

6. We know that when children and young people are asked about what they want from those who work with them, a familiar set of issues is raised e.g. "listen to me, respect me, keep me safe, include me, explain things to me, work with others to bring support to me, help us all have the same chances"^[2]. These issues have been raised in the past and continue to be raised which suggests they remain high on their agenda. Therefore, they should remain high on the agenda of workers too. We would encourage every worker to constantly reflect on the areas within the Common Core, learning from new approaches and seeking feedback on these areas from fellow workers as well as children, young people and families.

Working Together

7. It was also clear from the development of our social policy frameworks that we cannot "transform" outcomes for children, young people and families unless we work together in innovative ways utilising the diverse range of talent that exists. Workers must understand what is important to the people they work with and the role they can play in helping to improve their lives, most often in collaboration with others. Although synergies across the vast group of workers (outlined in paragraph 4) are constantly being generated there is still enormous untapped potential when it comes to joint training / joint working, improved communication and engagement. Those looking to create new links should start a dialogue using the Common Core as the common ground, a meeting place, where different workers, services and organisations can come together.

Promoting strengths

8. Every worker should help identify and promote the strengths that lie within children, young people, families and their communities to ensure less automatic reliance on services, over time. This strengths based approach permeates the Common Core. Demonstrating the characteristics within the Common Core will ensure workers adopt an appropriate non-judgemental and empathetic attitude that is conducive to the identification of strengths within individuals and communities.

Promoting children's rights

9. The Common Core is explicitly cross-referenced to the guiding principles of the UNCRC. This helps to highlight the fact that observing and promoting the UNCRC need not be complicated and that it is fundamental to all of our work with children and young people. As workers strive to strengthen they way in which they include the UNCRC principles within their work, the Common Core can be used as a useful starting point for discussion.

10. More information on the different practical ways the Common Core can be utilised and implemented can be found on Implementation.