About Us

‘Delivering Excellence for the Children’s Workforce in Schools’

The SWP’s four partners first came together in 2004 under the title The School Support Staff Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE). In July 2009 the CoVE status for the partnership came to an end. As a result of this, the partners, STAR (Training and Consultancy) Ltd, Lancashire County Council, Staffordshire County Council and Blackburn College agreed to continue working together with refocused responsibilities and purpose under the name The Schools Workforce Partnership.

Since our inception, the partnership, supported by board representation from TDA, LSC and Unison (representing the staff perspective) has been involved in:

• Developing new qualifications for School Support Staff, including the Support Work in Schools (SWiS) qualification.
• Piloting and delivering Parent Support Adviser VQs.
• Supporting national conferences and regional events, disseminating best practice and promoting CPD to stakeholders in the wider children’s workforce.
• Developing and implementing online training needs analysis and planning tools.
• Raising Level 2/3 qualification achievement and supported progression routes.
• Delivering VQs and NVQs to the wider children’s workforce.
• Developing School apprenticeship programmes.
• Developing and publishing Support Work in Schools (SWiS) VQ workbooks.
• Supporting the developments in HLTA status.
• Providing input and membership to national bodies/boards and consultation events e.g. TQS part B and the Induction Adviser Group.