The history of the Drug and Alcohol NOS development

Skills for Health reviewed the Drugs and Alcohol National Occupational Standards (DANOS) framework as part of a review of all of its National Occupational Standards (NOS). The main purpose behind this review was to reflect changes in NOS over the past years. Skills for Health, like all Sector Skills Councils, tries to ensure that all of its products are as up to date and relevant to the sector it supports and therefore reviews of NOS and Qualifications are an important part of this role. Historically the DANOS suite was made up of NOS imported from several suites including - Health and Social Care, Management and Leadership, however these suites were given DANOS code labels (e.g. AA2). The DANOS suite also included standards developed specifically for the Substance Misuse workforce. As a result of this exercise you are still be able to access the majority of the original National Occupational Standards (NOS) that historically made up the DANOS suite, but you will notice some changes which include: 1. Some NOS remain unchanged in both content and code labeling (the prefix to a standard e.g. AA1) 2. Some NOS had their code label changed because the original is now being used e.g. from AA2 to HSC233 (Health & Social Care) 3. Some of the NOS that were imported to the DANOS framework were updated by the originating sector. The updated competences have therefore been included and given their original code label e.g. AD2 to ENTO L10 4. Some of the original DANOS were made more generic, to fit with Skills for Health's procedures, and have consequently been given a GEN or CHS code label e.g. AC2 to GEN36 and AH5 to CHS12 5. Finally some of the NOS were split into several NOS due to changes in the original standard e.g. AH8 to Pharm 07, 08, 09, 10, 11 The development of DANOS was led by Skills for Health in close partnership with the Sector Skills Councils for Justice, Social Care, Housing, Employment, Education and Young People. Thousands of individuals from agencies in the statutory, voluntary and independent sectors, together with government departments, local authorities, professional associations and education and training providers, have contributed to the development of the Drug and Alcohol National Occupational Standards.