Developing a new paraprofessional role

The aim of this workstream is to identify and address the need for new roles to support social workers, allowing them to maximise their skills. An equally important driver is to establish roles which assist the integration agenda. Though the workstream's main focus is the paraprofessional role, other roles within social work and related services will be considered, including business manager/administrator and consultant/practitioner.

Our approach to developing the paraprofessional role will be to develop the competencies and remit of the role by building on and learning from existing roles, recognising that there are many existing support and assistant roles from which we need to learn and some identifiable skill gaps which a new complementary role might help address. Agreeing a common set of competencies and job profile will ensure that the role can be properly regulated and become part of a career framework that allows progression towards a professional qualification for those who wish it. Mapping competencies against other disciplines as well as social work will produce a flexible base for developing new posts.

Success Criteria

Professionals are effectively supported to fulfil their role through the creation of a new paraprofessional role which:

• has a recognised competence base and defined profile;
• is able to work between professions/agencies;
• fills a recognised skill gap which employers find difficult to address in isolation (eg facilitating inter-agency working);
• is part of a career route, enabling progression towards professional qualifications or greater depth of expertise;
• works under the direction of qualified professionals ensuring that effective use is made of the expertise of both.