Info & Tools

Click on the links below for further information

Workforce Development Toolkit

Monitoring Training and Assessing Impact

Training Needs Analysis

The Key to Bidding Success

I am a …Manager in a substance misuse service

I am a … Commissioner/purchaser of substance misuse services

I am a … Worker in a substance misuse service

I am a Worker … NOT in the substance misuse field

Skills for Health DANOS Framework

Skills for Health are currently in the process of reformulating their website and you may be experiencing problems accessing the Skills for Health DANOS breakdowns within the Centre’s toolkit due to this. You will be redirected to the Skills for Health website where you will then need to click on the URL to view the full competency breakdown that you are searching for. Alternatively, click on the hyperlink below which will take you to the new location of the standards within the Skills for Health website.

Skills for Health DANOS Framework

Workforce Development Toolkit

Using National Occupational Standards (NOS) can be a daunting prospect for workers and managers alike. Our aim is to help you to use NOS in a simple way. The information and tools presented below have been created by the Centre to help you use NOS, in particular DANOS. Please refer to our Step by Step Guide to Using the Centre’s Workforce Development Toolkit for further information on how to use our tools.

The Centre has developed 5 generic role profiles which were created through extensive interviews with workers in the substance misuse field across Wales. They therefore contain a large number of standards because they are intended to represent the majority of workers roles in the substance misuse field. The role profiles are:

Please select the generic role profile most relevant to your job. Review this profile, ideally with your line manager. Two questions should be considered during this review:

Is anything contained in the role profile that is irrelevant to your role? If yes, then delete those irrelevant standards.
Are there aspects of your specific role that are not contained within the role profile as it currently stands?If so, use the Centre’s Mapping Tool to identify the DANOS standards that are relevant to your specific job, but that are not in the role profile as it stands. Add any new standards to the role profile.

NOTE: When making a judgment as to whether a certain standard should be included in the role profile you should refer to the complete breakdown of the standard because some of the standards’ titles can be misleading. Complete breakdowns of each standard can be found at Skills for Health DANOS Framework
Review your finished role profile for accuracy. Ask your manager to do the same.
Use your finished role profile to assess where you do and do not meet the requirements of your role. Where are the gaps in your ability and competence? What standards do you need to develop in? You can use the Centre’s DANOS Assessment Tool to help you do this. Your organisation may already have a similar performance evaluation system in place which you could also use.
Use the outcomes of the DANOS Assessment Tool to form a Development Plan. Click here to view a template of a Development Plan. Using your Development Plan, you can now schedule your training and education activities. There are many ways in which people can learn additional skills and knowledge, these include:

Observing the practise of others and having others observe yours
Researching and reviewing documents
Mentoring
Attending professional conferences, workshops and exhibitions
Undertake formal training. Use our Directory of Training to identify courses that will meet your training needs.

IMPORTANT: Formal training is only beneficial if you apply what you learn in your daily practise. Therefore, it is imperative that you and your manager evaluate how the training has had an impact on your practise within a three month period of attending the training. For key questions to ask during this evaluation click here.
Remember that much learning can be achieved in an informal way through experiences and challenges encountered through everyday practise. For further ideas about how your everyday practice can be used to form evidence to demonstrate your competency in DANOS refer to the Centre’s Guidelines for Evidencing Competency – Click here. (Annexes Here)
Re-visit your Development Plan on a regular basis to assess your progress and continuing development needs. Regular review of the development plan will also promote and support a process of continuous professional development, which is crucial to your career development as it provides clearly defined steps to undertake in order to progress in your field.

The role of managers in supporting worker's development and assessing their competence is key to successful performance management. Our 'Guidelines for Evidencing Competency for Managers'(Annexes) will assist managers to aid the professional development of their staff. These Guidelines provide practical advice and tips for managers to assess the workers' competence and performance, including Q&A and observation sessions.

For further guidance on how to use our Workforce Development Toolkit please click here

Core Competencies - The following units are accepted as the core standards for front line practitioners across the substance misuse field across Wales and England and as such these standards must remain within the role profiles of all practitioners. However, some of the standards may well be applicable to those who are not front line workers so please carefully consider the ‘Performance Criteria’ and the underpinning ‘Knowledge and Understanding’ of these standards before removing them from role profiles. These can be accessed by clicking on the standard below.

Promote effective communication for and about individuals	HSC 31
Promote, monitor and maintain health, safety and security in the working environment	HSC 32
Promote choice, wellbeing and the protection of all individuals	HSC 35
Reflect on and develop your practice	HSC 33

Monitoring Training and Assessing Impact

Obtaining training evaluations/feedback from staff can be an important step in gauging whether the training was successful in meeting the learning needs of staff. However, training evaluations and feedback should not be the end of the process in assessing the effectiveness of training.
In order to get a full picture of the impact of training on the practise of staff it is recommended that an assessment is done three months post training. The Centre has created a Training Impact Questionnaire to assist managers and staff in determining whether the training that staff have attended has been both successful and practical, and ultimately a good use of the organisations resources. The questionnaire is not intended to be a comprehensive list of questions for consideration. There may be further questions relevant to organisations so please feel free to amend the questionnaire to meet your specific needs.

Training Needs Analysis

Before implementing any type of training it is crucial to accurately identify what the training needs of an individual or group are. A Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is a systematic way of identifying training needs.
The benefits of a well conducted Training Needs Analysis are:

Training can be directly related to organisational objectives
Training can allow for an assessment of whether the organisation has the skills to meet its long and short term goals
Training can be targeted at specific requirements
Training needs can be identified and prioritised
The time of trainers can be spent on more productive activities
The time of participants can be spent on programmes which are appropriate for them
Training of limited value can be avoided
Financial resources can be allocated more effectively and efficiently
Training can be carefully tailored to requirements

Competitive Advantages of an TNA
Conducting a Training Needs Analysis helps an organisation to be more competitive:

Training faster than your competitors may be the only form of sustainable competitive advantage
Scarce resources can be more accurately focused on critical success areas
Investing in people can lead to an increase in their value compared to capital investment which depreciates over time
Successful organisations of the future are those which can tap into people's ability to learn
Probably the best long-term strategy for achieving organizational achievement is through learning

How to conduct a TNA
At the outset, business objectives need to be clear before a TNA is conducted so that reliable conclusions can be made of the skills required by the organisation. A TNA for an individual can be done either by that person’s manager, or by the individual themselves.
Individuals should measure themselves against the competences required for the job. These can be found in job descriptions and in National Occupational Standards. The Drug and Alcohol National Occupational Standards are one of a number of sets of Standards that may be relevant to the individual’s job.
Individuals can assess where their strengths and weaknesses are according to the competences required to perform effectively in their role. From this, individuals can deduce what learning and development must take place in order for them to be fully effective in their role.
Some further questions individuals might like to consider when assessing their training needs are:

What are your strengths and weaknesses?
How do you plan to address these weaknesses?
What changes are happening to your area of professional expertise?
How do you propose to keep up to date and maintain your professional standards?
What training have you had during the past year?
Do you have any choice in choosing the training courses you think you need?
How does your training link to organizational aims and objectives?
Are your skills being used effectively in the organization?
Do you discuss your training needs with your line manager / the training department?
Do you have a career development plan?
Do you have a personal development plan?
Do you have the transferable knowledge and skills to enable you to find another job if your current one ends, or you choose to change employer?

Our Training Directory has details of a number of training courses relevant to those people working in the substance misuse field.

The Key to Bidding Success

The Welsh Assembly Government are committed to aligning workforce development activities in the substance misuse field in Wales to National Occupational Standards (NOS). In response to this, Commissioners are increasingly looking for organisations to be able to demonstrate their use of NOS, in particular the Drug and Alcohol National Occupational Standards (DANOS), when they are commissioning services.

Tender documents present an excellent opportunity to showcase how your organisation utilises NOS at strategic, operational and managerial levels and the Centre have created a downloadable guide, entitled “The Key to Bidding Success”, that offers practical advice on how you can evidence an integrated approach to using NOS in your organisation.

I am a …manager in a substance misuse service

Managers have been identified as having particular learning and development needs. This probably reflects the fact that many managers have been promoted into a managerial role from a front-line service provision role.

There are DANOS standards specific to managers, however other standards within the DANOS framework may also be relevant to your role. To view the standards in their entirety click here. For information on how to use these standards please see our ‘Workforce Development Toolkit’.

To help you be more effective in your role as manager, you could think about doing an NVQ in Leadership and Management. You will find more information on where to access such courses in our Directory of Training, or contact a local college.

As a manager of a substance misuse service, you may also have development needs similar to other workers in substance misuse services. You may find it useful to read the section for ‘worker in a substance misuse service’, as well as this section for managers.

I am a … commissioner/purchaser of substance misuse services

Commissioners of services have been identified as having particular learning and development needs. This is partly because people in commissioning roles may be new to the field. Commissioning is a recent trend and many staff have not had the chance to gain much experience.
There are DANOS standards specific to commissioners, however other standards within the DANOS framework may also be relevant to your role. To view the standards in their entirety click here. For information on how to use these standards please see our ‘Workforce Development Toolkit’
To help you become more effective in your role you might want to consider undertaking a training course in commissioning. You will find more information on where to access such courses in our Directory of Training.
As a commissioner or purchaser of substance misuse services, you may also have development needs similar to other workers in substance misuse services. You may find it useful to read the sections for ‘worker in a substance misuse service’ and manager in a substance misuse service, as well as this section for commissioners and purchasers.

I am a … worker in a substance misuse service

Your learning and development needs are likely to be determined by the amount of contact you have with substance misusers.
If you are often/always working with substance misusers you may have quite specific development needs, such as increasing your knowledge on blood borne viruses.
There are DANOS standards specific to service providers, however other standards within the DANOS framework may also be relevant to your role. To view the standards in their entirety click here. For information on how to use these standards please see our ‘Workforce Development Toolkit’
If you do not already have a formal qualification applicable to the substance misuse field you should think about doing so. A formal qualification is a way in which your skills, knowledge and competence can be acknowledged appropriately. Such qualifications include a level 3 NVQ in Health and Social Care, or Working with Offenders. Details on such courses can be found in our Directory of Training.
You may already possess a formal qualification relevant to substance misuse such as an externally-based and competence-based qualification (e.g. an NVQ). In addition to this qualification you may be interested in a new type of qualification you can do that offers you further learning opportunities and a way to undertake further professional development. These qualifications are called Award/Certificate in Working with Substance Misuse and they have been developed in partnership by 2 sector skills councils – namely Skills for Health and Skills for Justice. Click here for more information on these qualifications.

I am a worker … NOT in the substance misuse field

Even if you do not work in the substance misuse field, you may well come into contact with people who are substance misusers. You could describe your role as a ‘gateway’, because you are the first point of contact for some substance misusers but will quickly refer such individuals on to more specialist treatment.
There may be several standards within the DANOS suite that are relevant to your role. There may also be other suites of standards that are applicable to your role. Please click here to view additional suites.
There are many courses that are run around Wales that will provide you with a basic awareness of issues around substance misuse. Please see our Directory of Training for information on where to access these courses.