1. How do I progress in my career?
There are a number of routes you can take to progress your career.
NVQ
NVQs are vocational qualifications. That is qualifications which you undertake in the workplace. An NVQ consists of core units plus additional optional units. You can choose units which are relevant to your role. DANOS units are specialist units related to the Drug and Alcohol field. These units are now available in various NVQs today.
The Health and Social Care NVQ is one example of an NVQ relating to the substance misuse field, containing optional units from DANOS. The Working with Offending Behaviour NVQ Level 3 has been developed for staff in probation/social work and voluntary sector agencies working with offenders in the community. This NVQ consists of 5 mandatory and 5 optional units some of which contain DANOS.
After completing an NVQ you can still ‘top up’ your qualification by taking specialised units which would relate to the job you are aiming for. This will prevent you wasting time on qualifications you may not use and focus more on the units that will help you progress in your career.
Award and Certificate in Working with Substance Misuse
Skills for Health and Skills for Justice in partnership with Edexcel and City & Guilds have created a range of new qualifications for the substance misuse workforce. These qualifications are designed for workers who already have an NVQ.
Formed through expansive consultation with substance misuse professionals and assessors, the qualifications are entitled ‘Award in Working with Substance Misuse’, and ‘Certificate in Working with Substance Misuse’. The qualifications can be undertaken at Level 3 or at Level 4.
The Awards and Certificates are being piloted throughout the UK including Wales. Skills for Health and Skills for Justice are looking for individuals who would be interested in participating in the pilot by undertaking either a level 3 or a level 4 Award or Certificate. They are also very keen to hear from centres from all regions of Wales that would be prepared to run and deliver the new qualifications. If you think you or your organisation would be interested in getting involved and would like to know more please contact Suzanne Fisher at Skills for Health: Suzanne.fisher@skillsforhealth.org.uk
It is important, for your career progression, that you undertake continuing professional development. This could involve attending training courses to ensure your knowledge remains up to date, or by setting up a mentoring scheme in your organisation. It is important that your knowledge and understanding of the drug and alcohol field remains current and in sync with your career aspirations. DANOS will give you the framework to do this.
2. What qualifications should I do?
Your choice of qualification will be affected by your field of work, your specific role, and your training and development needs. There are numerous qualifications that are linked to the drug and alcohol field. Here are just a few with a brief outline of what they entail:
NCFE Level 1 Certificate in Drugs Awareness
This is a Basic Drug and Alcohol Awareness and attitudes course. This qualification is suitable for the widest possible range of people from school and college students to those who have an interest in raising their own understanding of issues surrounding substances.
NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Drug Awareness Studies and Their Applications
This qualification is appropriate for a wide range of people from those who need general background knowledge or as a progression route for those who wish to work in a more specialised substance misuse role.
First Certificate in Tackling Substance Misuse
The First Certificate in Tackling Substance Misuse aimed at those hundreds of thousands of Tier 1 workers who need to be able to recognise indications of substance misuse and know what to do - either refer individuals to specialists or cope with emergency situations until professional help arrives.
Skills for Justice - Advanced Apprenticeship in Community Justice
This is a nationally designed programme for young people aged 18 - 24 who have left full time education. The majority of community justice apprentices tend to be over the age of 20. The apprenticeship programme takes two years to complete during which the apprentice will be employed in a community justice setting and gain a number of nationally recognised qualifications. Examples of employers include Youth Offending Teams, the Probation Service, commissioned drugs services and prison drugs services. For more information visit: http://www.skillsforjustice.com/websitefiles/App%20Leaflet(1).pdf
Health and Social Care NVQ Level 3
The Health and Social Care NVQ Level 3 is aimed at those drug and alcohol workers without professional qualifications. The NVQ will require candidates to demonstrate their competence in four core units (in common with all health and social care workers) and four optional units drawn from DANOS.
FDAP Drug & Alcohol Professional Certification
The Federation of Drug and Alcohol Professionals (FDAP) Drug & Alcohol Professional Certification builds upon DANOS and complements NVQs by providing a competence-based professional certification for drug and alcohol practitioners. Under the scheme, practitioners can be certified as either Registered or Accredited Drug and Alcohol Professionals, and will need to provide evidence of competence in a 'core' set of 9 DANOS units plus one from a set of 14 'specialist' Units.
BSc (Hons) Substance Misuse
This award provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, qualities, skills and other attributes relevant to working with substance misuse.
Evidence Based Approaches to Counselling Substance Users
Drawing upon the most up-to-date research on treatment outcomes, EBA is a training programme that aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills that enable students to demonstrate competence in supporting drug users through change. Students are assessed and can submit evidence to accredit their learning with the National Open College Network (OCN). The course encourages participants to put theory into practice by combining input with activities to develop and rehearse skills. For more information on this course go to www.trainingexchange.org.uk
In order to determine which type of qualification is right for you, you should have a discussion with your line manager in order to assess where you need extra training.
3. Where can I find a course on a particular issue?
You may have identified a specific training need and want to find a course that will meet that need. DATOracle has a comprehensive Training Directory that you can utilise to search courses by name, DANOS unit code, training provider, location or type of course.
4. How do I go about getting into the drug and alcohol field?
Volunteering
Your local Volunteer Bureau will know opportunities available in the local area. They can talk to you about what you want to do and put you in touch with the right people: www.volunteering.org.uk
Gaining a Drug and Alcohol qualification
Compare your career goals with your current post and consider the similarities and differences. Identify what new knowledge, skills and experience you need for the desired post. Plan to acquire the new knowledge, skills and gain the relevant experience by undertaking a qualification relevant to substance misuse.
Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships are now an option for young people who want to get involved in the drug and alcohol field for example the Skills for Justice - Advanced Apprenticeship in Community Justice which is available to candidates aged 18-24 in England and Wales. (For more information see FAQ 2 - Skills for Justice - Advanced Apprenticeship in Community Justice)
5. How can I become DANOS competent?
See our ‘Steps for Your Development’ page for detailed information on how to demonstrate competency in the DANOS units relevant to your role.
Guidelines for evidencing competency are currently in the process of being created to allow managers to draw upon when assessing staff competencies. These guidelines will be available on the website soon.
6. What is FDAP? Should I be FDAP accredited?
The Federation of Drug & Alcohol Professionals (FDAP) is the professional body for practitioners in the substance misuse field and aims to help improve standards of substance misuse services across the sector. It is part of The Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC), and a registered charity (1075222).
FDAP’s Drug & Alcohol Professional Certification is intended to provide practitioners with a way to have their competence and professionalism recognised throughout the field. Accreditation as a Drug & Alcohol Professional provides externally validated evidence of competence.
7. How do I do an NVQ?
A National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) is a work-based qualification where candidates collect evidence according to the National Occupational Standards to prove their competency. NVQs are an assessment system not a training course. Here are some points to note about this type of qualification:
- Assessment of an NVQ is managed by ‘NVQ Assessment Centres’ which appoint assessors.
- An assessor will visit you in your work place to carry out a range of assessments every four to six weeks. Your assessor may need to talk with your colleagues and/or line manager also.
- A visit from your assessor may vary depending on what your assessor has planned with you.
- Although you will collect most of your evidence in the workplace (as a result of your daily work), you may have homework, as organising, cross referencing your evidence and compiling your portfolio of evidence will also need to be done. You will have to do this at home if you do not have enough time within your working hours.
Awarding bodies that offer NVQs include:
8. How can I become an NVQ assessor?
NVQs are assessed against National Occupational Standards (NOS). Assessors are appointed by assessment centres. An assessment centre is linked to an awarding body that offers NVQs. You will need to gain a qualification called an ‘A1 assessor’s award’ which means you can assess candidates using a range of methods, or an ‘A2 assessor’s award’ which means you can assess candidates performance through observation. You also need to be occupationally competent in the area you wish to assess. This means that you will have achieved an NVQ Level 1 in order to assess candidates working towards NVQ Level 1 and so on.
NVQ assessors will be responsible for:
- Meeting the candidate on a regular basis in their place of work
- Advising the candidate on the types and range of evidence that would be acceptable
- Advising the candidate on putting their portfolio of evidence together
- Undertaking observations of the candidates
- Collecting the "witness testimony" evidence where this is being used
- Assessing the evidence in the portfolio for relevance, authenticity and sufficiency
- Signing off the NVQ only when the candidate has met ALL of its requirements
- Completing and returning the appropriate monthly report form
- Attending at least two CPD events focusing on NVQ verification and assessment
- Keeping up to date with their own occupational competency
9. I am a training provider. How can I map my training course to DANOS?
Increasing numbers of training providers are mapping their substance misuse training courses to DANOS as they recognise the potential benefits of doing so. More and more substance misuse services are taking up the standards, using them to identify their workforce training needs and seeking training aligned to the standards.
In order to map your training to DANOS it will be important to have the standards in their entirety to hand as some of the standard titles can be misleading. The standards can be found here.
Cross reference the different elements of your training course to the full breakdowns of the standards to identify any correlation. If the training relates to any of the full breakdown of standards then those standards can be added to your training to demonstrate that it is aligned with those standards.
A good practise example of this process can be found on DATOracles good practise examples page. The good practise example also contains information on the organisations experience of the exercise.
10. I am a training provider and have aligned my courses to DANOS. How do I get my courses accredited?
Contact an awarding body who will assist you in proceeding down this route.
Awarding Bodies include:
It is a concern of many practitioners that the experience they have accrued through years of work in the substance misuse field will not be considered when evidence of DANOS competence is required by employers or commissioners. Some qualifications have a system in place to recognise this type of learning and this is called ‘Approved Prior Learning’. (APL) It is important to remember that prior learning does not have to be proved through formal qualifications. You do not have to do an NVQ to prove you can do your job. Prior learning can be evidenced by a record of learning and training you have undertaken over a period of time. This record might be your personal development record that your manager uses with you in annual appraisal sessions, or it might be something that you develop informally yourself.
