Voluntary Sector Social Services Workforce Unit

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Research Focus 2010

Personalisation and the Voluntary Sector Workforce

Since 2005 the Voluntary Sector Social Services Workforce Unit has worked to promote and support employers in the learning and development of their workforces.

The second of our four key outcomes for 2008/11 is to:

Work collaboratively to improve the knowledge and picture we have of the voluntary sector social services workforce.

Delivering on this outcome requires us to contribute through research to the evidence base from which workforce development policy is formulated.

Our 2009/10 work plan requires us to:

  • Identify research topics of interest to Unit stakeholders and seek to influence the research agenda to increase voluntary sector knowledge and evidence, and
  • Provide finance, research skills, time and voluntary sector engagement as the Unit contribution to wider workforce research.

The research we commissioned and carried out jointly with the Scottish Centre for Employment Research into the impact of re tendering on the workforce last year was well received and has been widely disseminated and picked up by policy makers across the UK.

We propose to adopt a similar model of collaboration with the Scottish Centre for Employment Research this year as this will allow us to contribute a substantive piece of research with the limited research budget we have available to us. This year's research proposal focuses on a key topic of current concern to Unit stakeholders - what personalisation means for the workforce.