The UK Reiki Federation - members notice
NATIONAL OCCUPATIONAL STANDARDS
October 2008
Update from
SKILLS FOR HEALTH
Skills for Health are undertaking a major project to review and rationalise the existing National Occupational Standards (NOS) for a range of complementary healthcare disciplines. NOS define what a competent person should be able to do when they carry out a particular activity or function.
NOS can be used for training needs analysis, training and development, performance review, personal development planning, governance, quality assurance, and reviewing service delivery decisions. When they are developed, NOS are consulted upon and agreed UK-wide, which means that they are based on shared good practice from across the sector.
The project has recently completed the first stage of work which involved researching and scoping the requirements for NOS. As part of this process meetings have taken place with the project’s Strategy Group and National Reference Group. These meetings have provided a good steer for revisions to the NOS which are now well under way.
A new approach to defining the NOS has been proposed and is currently being tested. The new approach will develop generic NOS that are common or shared across the individual disciplines. Such content will be presented and integrated with discipline specific knowledge. In this way, the transferability of skills will be recognised whilst retaining the uniqueness of each area of complementary healthcare.
Skills for Health will work with practitioners and stakeholders to further develop this approach to ensure it is fit for purpose.
The current Complementary Healthcare NOS that are being reviewed and developed are as follows:
- Alexander Technique
- Aromatherapy
- Bowen Technique
- Cranial Therapy
- Homeopathy
- Massage
- Naturopathy*
- Nutritional Therapy
- Naturopathy
- Reflexology
- Reiki
- Shiatsu*
- Yoga Therapy
* It should be noted that here are currently no existing NOS in place for Naturopathy and Shiatsu.
Project timetable
The project is running from March 2008 until September 2009. An overview of the timetable is as follows:
| Research and scoping | March to June 2008 |
| NOS development 1st draft | July to December 2008 |
| NOS Consultation | January 2008 to April 2009 |
| Qualifications development | April to September 2009 |
Next update
The next bulletin will be available at the end of the year in December
2008.
All project information is available on the Skills for Health website:
www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/page/competences/competences-in-development/complementary-therapies
and, for more general information, including a link to a glossary of terms:
www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/page/competences
We need your help!
If you would like to be involved in helping to review
the NOS and informing development of the new content, please
contact
Erica
Treharne (Project
Manager) at
Erica.Treharne@skillsforhealth.org.uk
See also
