21 Aug 2025
Standards and frameworks
Driving workforce standardisation and consistency across sectors
Our standards and frameworks provide the structure and clarity needed to support workforce capability, career development and consistent service delivery.
Through decades of working with employers and sectors nationally, we have helped shape many of the occupational standards and workforce frameworks in use across the UK workforce today. This experience places us in a unique position as a trusted authority in strengthening workforce capability to meet evolving service needs.
Responding to workforce and system integration challenges
As services evolve and become more integrated, organisations need clear, consistent structures to define workforce capability, roles and career progression. Common challenges include:
- Inconsistent definitions of workforce roles, competencies and expectations.
- Limited workforce mobility for staff to move across services, sectors or organisations.
- Workforce development approaches misaligned with evolving service models or multi-agency integration.
- Fragmented career pathways that make progression and workforce planning difficult.
- Limited capacity to coordinate the complex stakeholder engagement and development required to design effective standards and frameworks.
The recognised authority in workforce standards and frameworks
We work with employers, professional bodies and education providers to design standards and frameworks that underpin roles, capabilities and career pathways across services and sectors.
Our services include:
- National Occupational Standards providing nationally agreed definitions of competence for specific functions.
- Capability frameworks defining the skills, knowledge and behaviours required to deliver services safely and effectively.
- Career frameworks outlining workforce levels and progression pathways across professions and sectors.
- Career and competence frameworks supporting workforce mobility and multi-agency working across integrated services.
Frameworks can be designed around roles, workforce groups, service pathways or end-user populations, ensuring workforce capability aligns with how services are delivered. To support implementation, we also develop interactive toolkits, guidance and launch materials.
How we work with you
Our approach is flexible and tailored to the context of each sector and organisation. Whether developing national standards, supporting sector-wide frameworks or designing workforce capability models, we adapt our approach to deliver practical, bespoke solutions.
Our work is informed by:
- Deep sector understanding, combining workforce expertise with insight into how services are delivered in practice.
- Extensive stakeholder engagement, bringing together employers, practitioners, professional bodies, education partners.
- Proximity to national policy, translating policy and workforce priorities into practical standards and frameworks for sectors.
- Evidence-led design, grounded in workforce research, skills insight and service needs.
Why partner with us?
- Standards setting body: As a government-licensed national standards body, we have shaped 4,000+ National Occupational Standards used across multiple sectors.
- Proven national impact: 50+ frameworks developed, including the Core Skills Training Framework supporting 1.19 million health workers across 94% of NHS Trusts.
- Policy-to-practice expertise: Translating national workforce and skills policy into practical standards and frameworks.
- Unique system insight: Working at the intersection of employers and education to align workforce capability with sector needs.
“The NOS for Resilience and Emergencies are a significant step forward in terms of supporting a UK-wide approach to resilience and emergency preparedness, providing the foundations for building skills capacity across our nations and regions to mitigate the risks posed by a range of disruptive challenges.”
Hamish Cormack, Head of UKRA
Trusted across sectors
Through our brands we have supported organisations including
Skills Development Scotland
Cabinet Office
NHS England
National Clinical Homecare Association
Public Health Wales
Case study: Building resilience skills
Against the backdrop of the COVID inquiry, introduction of Martyn’s Law and the Grenfell Inquiry, we partnered with the UK Government’s Cabinet Office to consult on the civil contingencies suite of National Occupational Standards (NOS). Engaging over 30 sectors across all four nations of the UK, this work will help redefine and enhance the core and transferable skills necessary for effective crisis management. The revised NOS set a benchmark for competence, shaping recruitment, training and performance management across public and private sectors, and strengthening the UK’s resilience to future crises.
Case study: Non-custodial Career and Competence Framework
The Non-custodial Career and Competence Framework, developed through the NHS England Health and Justice Inclusive Workforce Programme, aims to strengthen recruitment, retention and progression across four key non-custodial services by introducing 21 competence-based role profiles from Levels 2–8. Built on National Occupational Standards and created with subject matter experts, it provides clear pathways, supports skill development, enables flexible and integrated working, and helps reduce health inequalities by ensuring a well-supported, diverse workforce delivering high-quality care across non-custodial settings.
Case study: National Clinical Homecare Association (NCHA)
We worked with the National Clinical Homecare Association (NCHA) to launch the UK’s first career and competence framework for clinical and nursing roles in clinical homecare, a sector supporting over 650,000 patients to receive high-quality treatment at home. Developed with industry experts and shaped through public consultation, the framework provides structured career pathways to help employers maintain standards, support workforce development, and expand services.
Contact us
Get in touch with us to learn more about our expertise in standards and frameworks.