Review of the National Occupational Standards for Playwork

Play England has announced that the UK Playwork NOS Consortium has approved to take forward a Review of the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for playwork.

The UK Playwork NOS Consortium comprises Play Wales, Play Scotland, PlayBoard NI, Play England and The Playwork Foundation. The Consortium has been meeting since October 2021 and was established to plan strategically across the four nations for the future of workforce development and sector skills initiatives, including a future review of the NOS.

Since that time the consortium has undertaken preparatory work towards the NOS review. The works included commissioning a scoping exercise to establish the use of NOS across the UK, particularly in relation to NOS within qualifications to work in regulated playwork settings. Over the coming months the UK Playwork NOS Consortium will be recruiting members of a writing group to undertake the work of reviewing and drafting the new standards.

The review will be supported by Expert Reference Groups, which will also be openly recruited to, and include representatives from open access playwork, out of school childcare, further education, higher education, awarding bodies and allied sectors.

The final NOS is set to be published in Autumn 2025.