Social Work
The final item of business is a members' business debate on motion S2M-642, in the name of Brian Adam, on a social work review.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament notes with concern the shortage of social workers throughout Scotland and considers that the Scottish Executive should initiate a McCrone-type review to look at social workers' pay and conditions in order to attract and retain more social workers.
I submitted my motion for a members' business debate as a result of the crisis in social work staffing throughout Scotland, especially in children's services. I will concentrate on the social work needs of children's services in particular and highlight some problems that have been identified in Aberdeen city and elsewhere in Scotland. Other members will undoubtedly raise issues relating to other problems that are faced by the profession as a whole or deal with constituency-related cases.
I recognise that a number of initiatives are available to address the problems, including the fast-track graduate entry scheme. I do not wish to belittle in any way the efforts that the Executive and local authorities have made so far, but I am concerned that such schemes—however welcome they might be—are in danger of simply being sticking plasters that address immediate shortages rather than being part of a long-term plan to eradicate recruitment and retention problems. In some ways, the Executive is making a difficult situation worse, especially where new burdens are being placed on local authorities. In Aberdeen, for example, a number of people who have left the profession have moved to the voluntary sector and, indeed, to new bodies that the Executive has set up. The introduction of new initiatives might be welcome, but it has exacerbated the existing difficulties.
Currently, there are 17 vacancies in Aberdeen across the range of children's social work teams. In November 2003, there were 339 unallocated cases, most of which related to referrals from the reporter for initial assessment reports, social background reports and other community referrals. It is significant that 12 children who were on the child protection register were without an allocated social worker and that 23 looked-after and accommodated children were without an allocated social worker. All those cases were being held by senior social workers at the expense of other parts of their duties. Those children are being denied a proper service and the staff's case load is too heavy.
In residential care, there was a 26 per cent vacancy rate in Aberdeen in November 2003, which is wholly unacceptable; however, that figure was a major improvement on the situation last summer, when the vacancy rate was greater than 50 per cent. In recent months, in my constituency, I have received complaints about the behaviour of children in council residential homes. Poor staffing levels, the relative inexperience of some staff and general work-load pressures have all contributed to difficulties.
The North East of Scotland Child Protection Committee commissioned a report into the life and death of Carla Nicole Bone. That report referred specifically to the need to improve staff recruitment and retention in children's services and to augment support for those in children's services by using, for example, family support workers, administrative staff and office equipment to release qualified staff for direct service provision. In England, Lord Laming's report—members should forgive me if I have not pronounced his name properly—which followed the death of Victoria Climbié, stated that managers
"must ensure that services are properly funded and adequately staffed to deliver services in a consistent and competent manner."
Following the damning O'Brien report into the death of Caleb Ness, it was said that social workers in Edinburgh were demoralised. The City of Edinburgh Council took action as the number of vacancies in its services soared to more than 10 per cent.
The deaths of those three children are three deaths too many. There might have been individual failures, but the staff shortages that have led to work overload have resulted in many council-based social workers leaving children's services and going to the voluntary sector and elsewhere. That is a direct result of the pressures that are involved in such work.
Law reform, social policy reviews and the continued existence of extremely vulnerable people, especially children, mean that social workers have increasingly difficult and complex roles. Those roles require myriad skills—including communication, critical analysis and evaluation skills—backed up by a comprehensive and broad knowledge base and the capacity to manage high levels of risk on an almost daily basis. All those factors have had obvious consequences for social workers' stress levels and have led, I believe, to the problems in recruitment and retention that the profession is experiencing.
Terms and conditions have been reviewed across a range of professions in the national health service through the agenda for change programme and I understand that the British Association of Social Workers is calling for the new conditions to be applied to social workers who work in the NHS. Teachers in Scotland have had the McCrone review. Will the minister consider taking a similar approach for social workers, rather than the sticking-plaster approach of individual initiatives? Will he take an approach that considers all the issues around the recruitment and retention of social workers in Scotland?
Six members wish to speak in the debate, so if members speak for about four minutes, I should be able to call everyone.
As is customary, I congratulate Brian Adam on securing this debate on an important subject.
It is undeniable that there is a shortage of qualified social workers in Scotland, that there are a substantial number of vacancies in some key teams in local authorities and that children and family services are under tremendous pressure.
What action is necessary to address the problem? I have broad sympathy with the sentiments that lie behind Brian Adam's motion, but I cannot agree fully with the rather simplistic solutions that it offers. Pay and terms and conditions of employment are clearly issues, but they are not the whole story. Almost all qualified staff, including me, and the vast majority of social care staff are members of Unison. Members will have received from that trade union a briefing that illustrates clearly the other issues that face social work and which need to be addressed. Those issues include the public image of social work; training, including post-qualification training; and resources to meet ever-increasing societal demands.
The shortage of social workers in some parts of our local authorities has been discussed at length in many debates in the Parliament during the past four and a half years. However, the reasons why people are not entering the profession, and the reasons why qualified staff are leaving it, cannot be explained simply. The increase in the number of social work posts during the past 10 years is perhaps not known; there are a record number of qualified social workers in Scotland and numerous other employment opportunities are available to those staff.
When I qualified in the mid-1980s, the only opportunities that were available to qualified social workers were in local authorities, but that is no longer the case. There has been an increase in the number of other care providers, particularly the national children's organisations, offenders organisations and residential providers, and they offer varied opportunities that are in some ways more exciting and rewarding than those that are available in traditional social work teams. When I qualified, most social workers were employed in generic teams, but legislative and other demands mean that most local authority social workers now practise in specialist and sub-specialist teams that are grouped around child care, community care and offenders. Although that approach is aimed at delivering better and more consistent services, it has led in some instances to staff being placed under ever-increasing pressures, particularly in my areas of specialism, which are child and family work and child protection work.
The Executive has begun to tackle some of the issues and we are beginning to see concrete improvements. Social work education has been updated and modernised. We have the new degree qualification, the recently established Scottish Social Services Council and the Scottish institute for excellence in social work education. Those are welcome improvements, which have been accompanied by adequate resources and an improved funding package, unlike the changes that were instituted by Virginia Bottomley, the former Tory health minister who oversaw the replacement of the certificate of qualification in social work and the certificate in social service by the diploma in social work.
In retrospect, I argue that the failure of the Tory Government adequately to fund the introduction of the diploma in social work, which kept it as a two-year course rather than the intended three-year model, went a long way towards reducing the quality of social work training throughout the 1990s. I say that as someone who holds a certificate in practice teaching and was responsible for a lot of placement supervision during that time.
If Scott Barrie sees the two-year diploma as inadequate, what are his views on the fast-track proposals?
The point that I was making, in comparing the two-year diploma in social work with the intended three-year model, was that a key component of the intended three-year model was a third year of practice in a particular area. The two-year course was concertinaed, with the practice year bit squeezing out a lot of the necessary training. I am absolutely confident that the new degree qualification will make good that deficiency.
Will Scott Barrie give way?
I am sorry, but I am out of time and I want to finish on this point.
Too often, social workers remain, at best, the butt of ill-informed jokes and, at worst, the whipping boys and girls for all society's ills. I thoroughly enjoyed my career during my 15 years in local authority social work. At times, I found it harrowing and stressful, but I also found it highly rewarding and satisfying. If social work is to remain a career option of first choice, as it was for me, we must ensure that the current practitioners and future entrants believe that it is a worthwhile choice. Pay and conditions of employment are important; however, as I have said, there are other equally important factors that need to be acknowledged. The Executive has made a start; I ask the minister that that commitment be continued.
I thank Brian Adam for securing this important debate. I started the job that I had prior to my election—I was a community paediatrician—in 1987. Over 16 years, I worked closely with the social work department, and I am sorry to say that I saw a decline in what it was able to offer.
I worked closely with the social workers who were involved with children's services, as we effectively shared a case load. When I first started, lots of things were available in the Highlands. There was what was called, rather oddly, intermediate treatment, which was a kind of outreach from one of the children's centres, and the social workers used to run group work with lots of children—troubled children, children of late primary school age and children of early secondary school age—trying to do preventive work. Not only were families that were in crisis visited by social workers—there were enough social workers in those days to visit the families regularly—but family aids would go in and carry out basic home care, budgeting-type tasks, child care, playing with children and that kind of stuff.
Although there was a lot of back-up, it was gradually withdrawn. The information technology services were withdrawn, as were the family aids, because of a lack of funding. We have now reached a stage at which social workers can barely cover the statutory work, let alone do any therapeutic work. That is not the way we want things to be. There are recruitment and retention problems, which are acute in the Highlands and Islands because of particular geographic issues, but—as always—the Highlands and Islands are a barometer for other areas where the problems are also acute. Every time that there is an inquiry into social work—when, for example, a child has died, as in the tragic cases to which Brian Adam referred—there is always a lot of public pillorying of the front-line social workers. That is very unfortunate. Unless we can address the image of social work in the public eye, we are not going to do much for recruitment and retention.
My colleague, Shiona Baird, passed on to me a letter that came from a student in Aberdeen who intends to go into social work when he finishes his studies. He pointed out that the Scottish Executive is offering £9,000 to students who qualify after June 2004 and who are prepared to go into the areas of criminal justice, children and families or mental health. The effect is that many of the students with whom he started the course are opting for the three-year course rather than the four-year course, so that they can get out and start earning. By choosing to stay on and do his honours year, he is effectively losing a year's salary of about £19,000 and incurring another £3,000 to £4,000 of debt through his student loan. I appreciate the fact that we want to attract graduates to the profession, but it is unfortunate that the way in which we are doing that is encouraging students to shorten their degree courses. It would be better if we could find some way of supporting them in the fourth year of their course, rather than encourage them to leave at the earliest opportunity to start earning through a package that is fairly attractive to someone with a student loan debt.
Does the member share my concern that we must ensure that it is possible for people to train as social workers reasonably close to where they live? Many people who can offer much to the profession are more mature, but they may already have family commitments and may find training difficult if we concentrate it in the central belt.
I absolutely agree with the member, whose suggestion is very dear to my heart. I know that, in the Highlands, there are people without a social work qualification who have been working in social work areas, broadly speaking, and who now have the opportunity to train. I welcome that, but we must try to deliver the training as near to their homes as possible.
The motion refers to a McCrone-type review of social workers' pay and conditions, which brings me to a further matter. Social work departments employ people other than social workers, including occupational therapists who are employed by social work departments either as community OTs, or in other roles, such as appliance officers, for which they use their OT qualification. However, the big issue around occupational therapy is the fact that the OTs in the latter group are on a different pay-and-conditions scale from their counterparts in the NHS. That situation must be addressed. I receive many letters about that from OTs and I believe that they would appreciate the situation being looked at.
I, too, am grateful to Brian Adam for securing the debate. He will notice that among the many signatures that are missing from his motion is my own. That is not because I do not agree with the motion's general tone but because I have two points of disagreement with it.
First, the motion refers to the shortage of social workers. However, like Eleanor Scott, I am concerned about provision in the social work service as a whole. I want to concentrate more on social work teams, which include directors of social work, senior social workers, care managers, occupational therapists, social work assistants, home care managers, sheltered housing wardens and managers and qualified staff in residential and day care settings. It is not only the lack of social workers but staff shortages throughout social work departments that affect the service.
Secondly, like Scott Barrie, I want to consider the motion's reference to social workers' pay and conditions. Unusually, I agree with Scott Barrie in that that narrows the focus and leads us to believe that the problem is only about pay and conditions. If I were to support a McCrone-type review, it would have to consider a wider range of matters than simply pay and conditions.
It might be useful to reflect on the fact that the McCrone review of the teaching profession also considered access to the profession—for example, it considered probationary teachers and their initial training. Therefore, perhaps we should appreciate that the McCrone review had a wider context and not just a narrow focus on pay and conditions.
I am simply saying that, if there were a review, it would have to be a review of more than just pay and conditions.
Brian Adam referred to the Caleb Ness inquiry. If we have learned anything from that, it is that there were problems at all levels of social work provision and that the problem was not simply one of a shortage of social workers. However, I do not want to digress into that area. Although I appreciated Brian Adam's points about children's services, if there were inquiries into mental health, care of the elderly or drug and alcohol services, we might find that the problems that exist in those areas are similar to those that exist in children's services.
The shortage of social workers is well documented. However, I am concerned about the fact that the Scottish Parliament continues to pass legislation—for example, the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003—that requires increasing numbers of social workers when there are not enough social workers to provide existing services. I agree with much of the legislation, particularly that on mental health, that we have passed. However, if we pass the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Bill, which we are now considering, there is no way that we can meet its requirements for social workers and mental health workers.
We hear from the Executive about the need for partnership and joint working, with which I agree and which we all want. However, that clearly cannot happen if one part of the equation does not deliver. I am not blaming social work services, but we cannot have a partnership if a partner is missing. I have examples of cases that highlight the problems that arise from the shortage of social workers and the lack of partnership—I will give no names. Recently, two sisters who came to my surgery told me that they had to argue with different social workers week after week about their mother's care on discharge from hospital. They finally got a sympathetic social worker and things worked out, but it took them a long time to get there.
On mental health, children's services, court services and the children's panel, the lack of social work reports or their lateness is leading to seriously inaccurate, incomplete and inappropriate decisions being made in some cases. On drug and alcohol cases, I have recently come across a problem relating to the inability of parents in Inverness to gain access to a social worker for two years. If it is decided that a review is the way forward, it must cover all social work staff, including occupational therapists and so on.
Finally, because I have spoken about occupational health services, I would like to give an example of how long people have to wait in the Highlands, where a priority system is used for people who are waiting to see an occupational therapist. Cases with priority rating B are judged to be urgent; they are in that category because they involve a terminal illness, the facilitation of hospital discharge, the prevention of the breakdown of the home situation and so on. There are currently 290 people in category B on the waiting list; they will have to wait up to 11 months to see an occupational therapist. Finally, there are 585 category C cases, which are judged to be high priority; the people concerned must wait up to two years.
I have to hurry you.
My point is made.
I do not know how many times you said "finally", Mary.
As a fellow Highland MSP, I might compensate for Mary Scanlon over-stretching the time limit a little. She was speaking with great passion.
I congratulate Brian Adam on bringing this issue to the chamber. We have neglected the issue even though it has often arisen during the passage of legislation that we have dealt with. We have never debated the concept of social work in our society.
Not everyone who has spoken in this debate has agreed with the totality of Brian Adam's motion, but I think that everyone agrees with the sentiments and ideas that lie behind it. I hope that all the comments that have been made—and those that will be made—will be taken on board by the Scottish Executive and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities in relation to the work that they are already doing and their proposals.
Like Scott Barrie, I want to talk about the negative portrayal of social workers, which is one of the greatest problems that we face in relation to the recruitment and retention of social workers. As has already been mentioned, every time there is a tragedy, newspaper headlines put social workers in the role of the people who are responsible. However, our national press and media never mention the endless, committed, dedicated work that is done day and night by those who are involved in social work. Those people are carers. We have had many passionate debates about the role of carers—voluntary and otherwise—in our society. The word "caring" has a more positive, cuddly and touchy-feely sound to it than the words "social work" have.
Does the member agree that the term "social worker" has negative associations? The fact that people describe themselves as workers might suggest that they are not carers. Perhaps the term "social carer" would be more helpful if we are to convey a more positive image.
I am not sure that the semantics are hugely important but the use of the word "carers" in relation to the people who have the qualifications that social workers have might help to improve their image.
Scott Barrie has much more direct experience of social work than I do. My involvement with social work arose when I became the co-ordinator of the now-defunct west of Scotland certificate in social service scheme, which covered Strathclyde Regional Council, Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council and innumerable charitable organisations. The people who became involved in that course were already in the social work sphere. It was a complex and intensive course and, as the course administrator, I can tell members that it generated more paper than the Scottish Parliament information centre does. It combined academic provision and training with real practical experience. The students were mature students and, talking to me about how they felt about their role in society and what they found most difficult, they spoke about the fragility that they felt when trying to establish relationships with vulnerable people. If a social worker goes into a house where a child has been placed at risk and the parents say that the child is asleep upstairs, should the social worker breach the parents' confidence and say, "I still have to walk past you and go upstairs to check that that is the case"? Such questions arise in a variety of circumstances.
When I told people that I was engaged in social work, I received the negative reaction about which others have spoken, but when I went on to explain that we ran modules for people who worked with the mentally handicapped, the elderly, the blind, children in residential homes and children in society, their attitude changed totally. We must focus on exactly what we expect from those who are involved in social work, and I hope that the additional training that is being offered will make that focus worth while. As a Parliament, we have a role in speaking out on behalf of those who are involved in social work, who are selfless in their dedication to the work that they do, and in encouraging new recruits into a profession that deserves a great deal of support.
I congratulate Brian Adam on raising an important subject and on the measured way in which he introduced the debate, which has been reflected in the other speeches, which have been measured and constructive.
We need to concentrate on providing the services that the public require. Services are the key thing, not staff, but we obviously need the staff to provide the services. If we consider antisocial behaviour, which is rightly exercising the Executive at the moment, we see that, to deliver a lot of what the Executive would like to happen, we need the social work service to provide a strengthened and improved service. That requires, among other things, more people, more training and better arrangements to support children's panels. Therefore, social workers are a key part of one of the Executive's top priorities, and as other members have said, there is an extensive shortage of social workers in some areas.
That shortage varies in different parts of the country, but there still seems to be a considerable shortage. Pay issues are obviously important to that, and if, as Unison says, social workers' pay has fallen behind that of comparable professions, we must address that.
There are also issues of work load. Obviously, lack of people and the existence of vacancies lead to an even greater work load on those who remain, and we hear a lot of anecdotal evidence about social workers who are totally submerged by the number of people whom they are supposed to look after and who cannot look after some of them adequately.
Public esteem is also an issue. To be happy in their jobs, people have to be well paid or feel good about themselves, which includes other people feeling good about them. Social workers get almost as bad a press as do politicians, so perhaps we could co-operate: we could have a trade union for politicians and talk to Unison about how we could collectively improve our image and learn from each other about how to get a better press than we do at the moment.
We should seriously consider internal recruitment—promotion within the ranks. Those who work as home helps or care assistants often have the qualities that would make them good social workers and it should be easier for them to advance up the professional ladder. There are others whom we should consider. Mature people, because they have experienced life, could bring knowledge to bear and, with a bit of professional training, would make very good social workers. We must consider that and consider giving those who are not social workers more responsibility within the social work system. Care assistants and others could be allowed to do more constructive work than they are allowed to do at the moment.
The question of name is interesting. I accept Brian Adam's point that "social worker" might have bad connotations. I have been thinking of possible names. I thought of social-ist, but I thought that there might be political problems with that and I have not thought of anything better. The name might appear trivial, but it is important.
I hope that the minister will take on board the points that have been made and that, perhaps collectively, we can make things better for the people who are supposed to and who do benefit from the social work service.
I thank Brian Adam for lodging the motion, although I have a sense of déjà vu, because we discussed the issue a couple of times in the previous session, if my memory serves me right.
First, I put on record my thanks for the commitment that social workers and other social work staff show daily and the good practice that they follow, particularly in the area that I represent of Renfrewshire and Inverclyde. We all know what would happen if they withdrew their labour. It is the same situation that would arise if carers, whom Margaret Ewing mentioned, withdrew theirs: our surgeries would be inundated with cases of problems and difficulties that we would not know how to begin to resolve.
I agree that we need to retain and attract more social workers and that there is a need for a review of pay and conditions. However, at the moment, that is still a matter for the trade union and employers. I worry about the proposal to set up yet another review group because, to be honest, I think that the Executive has set up too many. I agree with Unison that it is perhaps not the time to have another review. Even if we were to do that, it would take time.
I am not thirled to a form of words or to a particular type of review. I accept the point that there is perhaps more to the issue than pay and conditions. What does the member suggest that we do instead of having a review, given the crisis that we now have?
I am not going to be able to resolve that, but I will put forward ideas. Perhaps we should examine the good practice out there and learn from it. Some social work departments are making changes in response to the fact that there is a massive shortage of social workers.
How do we attract people to the profession? There is evidence from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities that there is considerable interest in encouraging graduates from courses other than social work to pursue a professional social work course, but what of others? Donald Gorrie touched on that. Scott Barrie said that his experience was in the mid-1980s; mine was in the mid-1970s when he was still in short trousers. My experience was somewhat different from his, but I think that we can learn from it. I worked in an office and read an advert about a change-of-career course. I did two years at Jordanhill College of Education, qualified as a social worker and worked for nearly 19 years.
Given what is happening in the labour market, the assets of people in their 40s or early 50s who have brought up families and dealt with teenagers, family problems and illnesses are every bit as valuable as is a university degree. They will have to be trained properly, because social work is not just about having that sort of experience. On social work courses, the tutors pare away from students every idea, principle and thought that they have and start to build them up again to be objective and not to be judgmental. Although that will have to be done, there are groups of people out there who might be interested in the sort of change-of-career course that I did.
Social work, by its nature, deals with vulnerable people who are at risk and who are disadvantaged in society. I have not met a social worker who wants to see unallocated cases; they do not want to see cases sitting in corners or to have to push and shove to meet their statutory responsibilities when dealing with vulnerable people.
Mary Scanlon and, I think, Donald Gorrie said that we have responsibility for the legislation that we pass. In the short time that I have been here, I have seen incredible changes in what social workers have to do, with the closure of long-stay hospitals—which was not decided here—the provision of hostels for the homeless and our new antisocial behaviour bill. Those measures have led to significant changes in how social workers are asked to deliver services. Such changes might have been made by us but they must be implemented by social work departments.
I want to consider good practice. In Glasgow, which has one of the largest social work departments in the European Union and which has the largest percentage of deprivation of any city in Scotland, there are proposals for good practice that will result in changes in case loads. Practice teams have been created, with a practice team leader and only three or four members in the teams. Practice teams will be introduced with a mix of professional and non-professional staff.
You have one minute.
There will be 36 operational managers, some of whom will have city-wide duties. That means that seniors—for the want of a better word in our language—will be given case loads. That immediately means that there will be qualified social workers at the coalface. That is the kind of thing that McCrone was considering for teachers. If people are good and can knock on doors and talk to the punters, that is what they should be doing. However, that kind of arrangement can be achieved without going down the road of McCrone. It offers job satisfaction and a much more attractive job. We need to attract more people into the profession. Even with good practice and the changes in delivery, a lot more has to be done.
I will finish by asking a question that I have asked the Executive every time I have stood up to talk about social work. Why is it that this profession, which is the second largest budget line in every council in the country, does not have a minister who is directly responsible for it? Mr Robson is here to respond to the debate tonight because children and education come into it. We could easily have had the ministers responsible for criminal justice or health. If we are serious about supporting people in the community, we should have a minister who people know is considering social work, its practice and its pay and conditions. I have asked the question before and nothing happens.
We need to be reminded of the good work that is done in our communities by public sector workers and we need to remember the consequences of our decisions in this chamber. All social work staff—professional and non-professional—have earned the right to our support and respect. They need support and more resources to provide more public services.
I have never been more tempted to use the red button.
I echo members' congratulations to Brian Adam on securing the debate. Like Donald Gorrie, I congratulate him on the measured tone of his opening remarks. Perhaps he could impress that style on some of the wilder colleagues who sit behind him.
I want to start with the bald facts. In 1997, there were 3,314 qualified social workers in Scotland. Last month, the figure was 4,118, so there has been an increase over six years of 24 per cent—almost a quarter. There is no getting away from the fact that, as members have mentioned, there is undoubtedly a shortage of social workers in particular areas, which has had a significant impact on vital services. We recognise the problem and we are taking it seriously. We are trying to address it.
Some members, such as Scott Barrie, have reminded us that this is an issue of growth. The facts are that 25 per cent more social work students graduated last year than did the year before and that there are more qualified social workers now than there were at any time in the past. Last year saw a net increase of 51 social workers across Scotland and the local authority social services work force as a whole grew by 5 per cent. The sector continues to expand. We estimate that, in the past six months, vacancy rates have remained static while the number of posts has risen by 4.4 per cent. We face a rising demand for services within an increasingly tight labour market. As someone pointed out, demographic trends are against us. There will be competition among professions in years to come for the best-quality young people. We therefore have to set out the profession in the most coherent and competent way to take that into account.
It is all very well to talk about the increase in supply, but would the minister acknowledge, as others have done, that there is an increase in demand for social workers across the voluntary sector because of legislation from here and elsewhere? Many graduates do not choose to take up a career in social work. The minister is giving only a part of the picture.
If the member had listened more carefully to what I said, she would have noticed that I specifically mentioned the fact that we recognise that an expansion is going on. It is clear that that is a result of the legislation that the Parliament has produced and other factors. I repeat that we estimate that, in the past six months, vacancy rates have remained static but the number of posts has grown by 4.4 per cent.
I want to take up two points. The minister said that the Executive wanted to attract and compete in the market for young people but, given that we are talking about the social work profession, I think that we should be attracting people of all ages.
I am concerned about retention in the profession, because there is a loss. It is natural that when some of the difficult cases are highlighted in the press and social workers are blamed, that leads to people leaving.
I acknowledge Brian Adam's points. I also want to mention the issue of changing the title of "social worker", to which he and Donald Gorrie referred. I raised that with social workers and they expressed their belief that the title of "social worker" should be a badge of honour. If that is how they feel, I am pleased to support them.
I want to put on record my appreciation for Margaret Ewing's remarks about the profession in general and to add my thanks, and those of the Executive, for all the unsung work that social workers carry out throughout the country. We are grateful for it and we appreciate all that they do.
To change the atmosphere around social work, we have delivered the first-ever action plan for the social services work force. That has included a national campaign that has had a positive impact on the image of the sector. We are transforming professional social work education through the establishment of the new degree qualification, new standards, the Scottish institute for excellence in social work education and the Scottish Social Services Council. With registration—for which the council is responsible—there is a national minimum requirement for social workers' continuing professional development. That is a very important aspect.
Eleanor Scott mentioned the national incentive scheme to encourage students to enter the profession. I listened carefully to the points that she made and will take them away with me. We have a bold campaign to attract school leavers to the new degree, but I recognise Brian Adam's point about the need to attract older people into the profession. I understand the importance of having multiple entry points to the profession. I mentioned school leavers and young people in particular in the context of demographic changes.
Does the minister accept that continuing professional development is a key part of ensuring that skills are updated continually in the social work profession? In the past, it has too often been the case that social workers received their professional qualification and then did not undertake any further training to ensure that their skills were kept up to date.
Precisely so. That is why the Scottish Social Services Council has that issue on its agenda and is proceeding with it. We will pay particular attention to that.
Donald Gorrie said that the home carer should become a social worker. I agree; I, too, feel that multiple entry points are important to the profession.
I expect to be in a position to make a further announcement on the fast-track scheme fairly soon. I say to Brian Adam that Aberdeen city recently obtained five graduates from the fast-track scheme. He raised the issue of having major providers locally; he may know that the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen is a provider and is running the relevant distance learning courses throughout Scotland, so the city that he represents is key to the work that is being developed.
Social workers are employed by local authorities as part of a wider group of local government employees who are covered by one scheme of pay and conditions, which provides for most terms and conditions to be negotiated locally. Therefore, each local authority is able to put in place structures that are suitable for the most effective delivery of services, in a way that reflects local circumstances. An entirely national approach to pay would not allow councils that flexibility. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, as I am sure that members will recognise. It is for local employers to determine how they run their services and how they remunerate their staff. I agree with Mary Scanlon, Donald Gorrie and Scott Barrie that social work's problems are not just related to pay and conditions. There are other aspects.
I hope that the minister is not suggesting that local authorities should be able to opt out of the national framework for negotiating pay and conditions. One difficulty at the moment is that we are robbing Peter to pay Paul, as different local authorities try to attract staff from other local authorities with inducements. That does nothing for the overall picture.
I am sorry if I gave the wrong impression. I was not suggesting that; I was trying to remind members that it is for local government to deal with pay and conditions.
I fully recognise the need for national co-ordination and for strategies to develop the social services staff across Scotland. That is why I am chairing a new national work force group. To answer Trish Godman's point, when I first entered the Education Department I asked exactly the same question that she has posed on a number of occasions. Apparently, it is an historical accident that social work is now located within the Education Department. Whether there should be a change is a good question, but I will not develop that point tonight.
The national work force group has three active sub-groups, which I will explain. The education and training sub-group will develop a national training strategy and make recommendations on the impact of spending. The human resource development sub-group is promoting best practice in recruitment and retention and implementing a range of projects, including the national recruitment campaign. The work force information sub-group is collating better information and producing new intelligence to help us to predict future need.
For most employers, a vital source of future social workers is their current work force, so we will continue to encourage the development of learning organisations. To that end, as I announced recently, we are investing over the current and the next two financial years a further £9 million in specific funding for training the work force across the sector. We are also investing £2 million in the leadership development programme for the leaders of the future, because we recognise that demographic trends mean that a number of leaders in the profession are about to retire.
Can the minister assure me that other groups, such as occupational therapists, will have their entitlement to CPD protected in the way that it would be if, like most in that profession, they were employed by the national health service, which provides OTs with an entitlement to protected time and funding for CPD?
I will take those points away, as I am not entirely familiar with the details regarding occupational therapists.
We have told local authorities that voluntary sector partners must share in the £9 million. It is extremely important that local authorities deliver on that.
Will the minister give way?
I am sorry, but I cannot as I am now several minutes over time and the Presiding Officer is looking at me askance—or at least I thought that he was.
From the facts that I have mentioned, I hope that I have been able to explain, as members did in the speeches that they made, why it is a myth that people do not want to be social workers. It is very important that we give social workers training, back-up and continuing professional development to help them in their profession. I confirm that the second phase of the care in Scotland campaign will begin on 26 January. It will be spearheaded by a six-week burst of advertising in national and local press and on the radio, as well as outdoor advertising.
In conclusion, we are determined to lift the social work profession so that it grows in self-confidence and is held in high esteem by the public. I think that we are making considerable progress, so I do not think that a review is needed quite in the terms that Brian Adam suggested. Much of the work that would be encompassed in a review is being done already.
As I have said, pay and conditions are certainly not the whole story. I personally am determined to lift the profession to where it ought to be, at the top of public esteem, and in doing so to ensure that the people of Scotland are well served by a vibrant social work profession.
Meeting closed at 17:49.