people at work

Education and children’s services

Prospect represents professionals in education, children’s services, early years, commissioning and children’s social care.

Prospect’s Education and Children’s Services (ECS) group represents professionals in the education, children’s services, early help, commissioning and children’s social care field, and provides strength of belonging to a union of more than 157,000 members.

They are based throughout GB and NI, and work across a range of sectors serving the interests of children and young people, including the public, private, faith, voluntary and community sectors.

Our members have exclusive access to specialist advice and support on salaries, contracts, conditions of service, workloads, pensions and other work-related issues.

We have a team of full time officers – highly trained specialists with an in-depth knowledge of employment law and issues arising from public sector reforms.

A meeting of our GEC

Our Group Executive Council (GEC) meets regularly to set policies and priorities and is made of members working across GB & NI in employment and independent consultants.

On a wider level, Prospect proactively lobbies government on key issues related to the work of professionals in education and children’s services.

Self-Employed Professionals

We also have a dedicated online hub for self-employed professionals working in our Education and Children’s Services  sector. Find out more about our support for self-employed workers.

Join the Education and Children’s Services Group today Join Prospect

Who we represent

  • Advisory headteachers
  • Directors and managers of children’s services
  • School improvement and early years advisers
  • Education welfare officers
  • Youth and community service officers
  • Early years professionals
  • 14-19 coordinators
  • Heads of Sure Start
  • Ofsted inspectors
  • Parent partnership staff
  • Self-employed consultants
  • Early help specialists
  • Commissioning staff

Education Eye Newsletter

We send a digital newsletter with the latest news, information and resources to our members in Education and Children’s Services four times a year.
Read the latest issue: Education Eye, August 2023

News and analysis

Blog
Warwick Mansell · 8 November 2023
In his latest blog, education journalist Warwick Mansell looks at how the strict and…
Read more 
group of business colleagues talking together during a meeting
News
9 August 2023
Prospect and other unions representing education professionals covered by the Soulbury…
Read more 
Little kids school children pupils students running hurrying to the school building for classes lessons from to the school bus. Welcome back to school. The new academic semester year start
News
4 August 2023
Schools that remain in their local council perform better in Ofsted inspections than their…
Read more 

Standards for education and children’s services professionals

Key documents defining the standards needed to work in education and children’s services.
See the documents

Keep up to date

See all our latest news and keep in touch with us on Twitter
Follow us on Twitter