Occupational standards describe the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to undertake a particular task or job to a nationally recognised level of competence'.

Induction and Foundation Standards outline the minimum level of understanding social care staff must have to work with due care and attention for the needs of service users. The Standards cover a wide range of social care related topics.

New staff have to be able to show that they understand the five Induction Standards within the first six weeks of starting employment with you. Within the first six months they also need to understand the five Foundation Standards.

It is the employer's responsibility to ensure that these requirements are met, with CSCI (Commission of Social Care Inspection) inspectors seeking evidence that staff are proficient to each of these Standards.

They are being phased out and will be replaced entirely by Common Induction Standards from September 2006.

How can training link into the National Occupational Standards (NOS) and National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs)?

Qualifications that are matched to job roles are competence based qualifications. This means that they are all based on National Occupational Standards and are assessed, at least in part, on practice.

Training programmes that support people to learn so that they can be assessed for competence based qualifications have to be organised so that they cover the knowledge, skills and understanding of the appropriate NOS.
These programmes are an essential part of personal development planning but they cannot be said to be interchangeable or equivalent to competence based qualifications such as National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). True equivalence to NVQs are only the Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs). S and NVQs are assessed against National Occupational Standards and are successfully completed only when the candidate has shown that they are consistently competent in the work.
Qualifications such as social work and nursing provide employers with reliable information about the ability of a holder to carry out defined work tasks competently. These qualifications can therefore be used as part of the way that the quality of services can be assured. NVQs are an assessment only system and all people will need to learn to be competent. The way they do this is not restricted. Therefore people who have certificates for education or training programmes will have developed their skills and may well be ready to complete assessment for an NVQ.