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Asked by:
Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged:
8 July 2025
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Current status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 31 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to improve workforce qualifications and training for those who work in secure care, in light of reports that staff are often employed without the necessary specialist skills to support highly vulnerable children.
The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the regulator for the social work, social care and early years workforce in Scotland. The Council protects the public by registering workers in social services; setting standards for their conduct and education. While the SSSC will set the minimum level of qualification required for an individual to maintain their registration, it is the duty of employers to ensure their workers are equipped with the appropriate specialist skills to safely and effectively carry out their role.
Ensuring a sustainable, skilled and supported workforce is fundamental to the future of secure accommodation and other care settings where children with complex needs require care and protection. Pages 16-17 of the Scottish Government’s response to reimagining secure care, published on 26 June, sets out a number of actions the Government is taking to support this:
- a commitment to continuing to pay for up to 16 beds across the secure estate in 2025-26 and 2026-27, to maintain capacity and to provide a level of financial security and resilience to secure providers.
- a commitment to raise the status of children’s social care as a profession, which is key to delivering quality care to vulnerable children.
- a further investment of £1.4 million in 2025-26 to the secure care workforce as part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to Fair Work in children’s social care. This investment will continue to address recruitment and retention challenges in the sector and contribute to its sustainability now and in the future.
- supporting improved implementation of national policy informed by frontline practice, and oversight of social work and the issues affecting the workforce through the establishment of the NSWA by April 2026.
- bringing both national and local government together to address workforce issues through the establishment of the Scottish Social Work Partnership.
- uplifting the value of the social work postgraduate bursary administered by the Scottish Social Services Council to £11,000 per year of an eligible qualifying course, from academic year 2025-26.
- working at pace with industry leaders and Skills Development Scotland to introduce a Graduate Apprenticeship, a new work-based professional social work qualification for academic year 2025-26.