The objectives of the Training Observatory are to enable artists and other key professionals to plan their professional development for this specific area of practice. It seeks to develop and maintain professional standards that are understood and accepted by commissioners of services across the key social inclusion sectors of education, health, crime and regeneration.

Teachers and artists who work with young people with complex needs have to be immensely adaptable. Demands on them are huge and call on a wide range of skills, many of which have little to do with the teaching of the curriculum. Burnout is common and turnover high. PAL’s V&C Lab provided the opportunity and resources for practitioners to share and support existing good practice, to be free to think broadly and imaginatively.

The Lab sparked a wider debate about professional development, quality assurance and capacity-building for this specialist area. To support the development of this debate, in 2006 PAL organised a colloquium, bringing together training providers and agencies involved in continuing professional development and training in the field across national programmes. The focused weekend provided the opportunity to directly share and, most importantly, experience examples of practice with the aim of identifying the essential elements of excellence and effectiveness.

The Training Observatory evolved from the colloquium and has subsequently been jointly developed by PAL and Angus McLewin Associates (AMA), with funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Creative Partnerships.