title: Development and validation of a child health workforce competence framework.
abstract: Providing high quality, effective services is fundamental to the delivery of key health outcomes for children and young people. This requires a competent workforce. This paper reports on the development of a validated competence framework tool for the children and young people's health workforce. The framework brings together policy, strategic agendas and existing workforce competences. The framework will contribute to the improvement of children's physical and mental wellbeing by identifying competences required to provide proactive services that respond to children and young people with acute, continuing and complex needs. It details five core competences for the workforce, the functions that underpin them and levels of competence required to deliver a particular service. The framework will be of value to commissioners to inform contracting, to providers to ensure services are delivered by a workforce with relevant competences to meet identified needs, and to the workforce to assess existing capabilities and identify gaps in competence.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, Sheffield Hallam University. I.m.smith@shu.ac.uk
authors.forename: Lynda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hawkins
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McCrum
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003697:Delphi Technique; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal; D004739:England; D017144:Focus Groups; D058006:General Practice / Q000193:education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D010934:Planning Techniques; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D000078329:Workforce