To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in implementing Action Plan for Social Services Workforce, issued in April 2002.
A great deal of progress has been made on the 12-point Action Plan, as follows:
1.1. Awareness and Career Recruitment Campaign
The multi-layered Care in Scotland campaign, involving TV, radio and press, was launched in October 2002. The steering group which shaped the campaign at its outset had representation from Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW), COSLA, Careers Scotland, SQA and professional and user bodies. The first two phases of the campaign have undoubtedly helped to change perceptions of working in social care. The second phase received added profile from January to February 2004 through press and radio advertising and through enhancement of the website, www.careinscotland.co.uk. The third phase of the campaign will take place between mid-November 2004 and mid-March 2005. This third phase is aimed at encouraging those with a latent interest in the sector to explore local training and employment opportunities in the sector. The TV, press and radio for Phase Three will roll-out on a regional basis in direct support of nine regional “open days” across Scotland which provide a wide array of employers, training providers and voluntary organisations the opportunity to present their organisation to the passing public.
2.2. Joint Ministerial Meetings
A number of meetings have been held, and a further one is being planned. In addition, senior officials from Health and Early Years are significantly involved in workforce planning for the social services sector, ensuring that there is firm cross-fertilisation of ideas and strategies at both ministerial and official level.
3. Workforce and Recruitment
I chair the National Workforce Group (NWG) whose members are key stake-holders drawn from relevant Scottish organisations and agencies. The NWG aims to provide cohesion and strategic direction for the development of the social services workforce of the future. The NWG is supported by three workstreams which aim to deliver:
A new education and training strategy for the sector. The draft National Training Strategy will be available for consultation within the next few months;
Improved workforce intelligence. A recent production of the Workforce Intelligence workstream is Scotland’s Social Care Labour Market (see also point 8 below) an important report outlining – for the first time in Scotland or, indeed the UK, the labour market profile of this sector. This report (which will be updated annually) allows workforce planning, both locally and nationally, to be carried out on a more proactive basis. The report is available at www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications, and
Improved HR Management. A workbook to support and promote best HR practice in the sector is currently under development. The document, which will be of use to front-line social services staff as well as line managers and HR staff, is a joint production of the NWG and the ADSW’s Supporting Front-Line Staff Initiative (see point 6 below also). The HR Group has also run a number of seminars in the summer of 2004 to support the sharing of best practice for retaining social work and social care staff, and is planning further roadshows on different HR themes of key interest to the sector.
The Minister for Education and Young People, Peter Peacock, announced a broad review of social work in June 2004. The review will seek to:
clarify the role of the social worker;
strengthen leadership and management in the sector;
address capacity issues, and
develop a stronger culture of quality assurance and performance improvement.
4. Director of Policy Co-ordination
Kate Vincent was appointed at the end of April 2002.
5. £3.5 Million Additional Funding to Local Authorities
Additional £3.5 million specific grant was allocated to local authorities in the financial year 2002-03. This funding was to support further training of frontline staff. In 2003 (financial year 2003-04), further funding of £9 million over three years was announced. This was provided to help local authorities plan their training needs over a longer period of time and also to help support the National Training Strategy which will be going out to consultation shortly (see point 3 above).
6. Support for Front Line Staff - Renewal of Pump Priming Funds for ADSW
ADSW has appointed a full-time project manager on a secondment basis to take forward work on issues identified in ADSW's “Supporting Front Line Staff” document. This report highlighted stress, violence at work, absenteeism, helping staff manage change and minimising staff time spent on administration. The project manager has now been in post for over a year and is an integral member of the NWG’s HR Group. She is currently producing, in collaboration with the HR Group of the NWG, a workbook setting out a HR framework and detailed line management tactics to support front line social service staff. It is expected that this document will be available by summer 2005.
7. Training in Leadership and Management - Scottish Leadership Foundation (SLF)
The SLF has developed a programme of training in leadership and management for middle and front line managers. This training which started in 2003 is proving very successful, and three cohorts (each of about 100 middle managers) have now embarked on their post-qualification Leading to Deliver training programme.
8. Economic Study of the Children's Labour Market
As noted in point 3 above, the first report on Scotland’s Social Care Labour Market is now available. It was published in August 2004 and will be updated annually.
9. Integrated Human Resources Working Group and Planning Together
As noted in point 3 above, one of the distinct workstreams of the National Workforce Group is a HR Management Group.
10. Return to Learn (RtL) Initiative for Front-Line Staff
The first RtL course, developed and run by the Workers Education Association and UNISON, started in October 2002 and have been successfully rolled out since.
11. Improving Access to Professional Training
We have introduced a Fast Track Graduate Recruitment Scheme. The scheme is currently an £11 million investment, allowing graduates from other disciplines to gain a social work qualification in under two years. It has the potential to take the total number of fast-track social workers to 550 over a four year period (a pilot run of the scheme, followed by a further three year commitment to roll out the scheme). This addition of up to 550 social workers will increase the size of the local authority social work workforce by more than 10%. To date, nearly 3,000 people have applied for a fast-track place. Recruitment to the second year of the three-year roll-out will commence in January 2005.
The new Sector Skills Councils will take over and expand the functions of the National Training Organisations across the UK. We are making sure that the proposals for these Councils are relevant to the needs of Scotland and in line with the Executive’s joined up agenda.
We have been examining professional and vocational education reforms. Two project groups have been set up. One, with representation from professional and user bodies, the higher education institutions and the Scottish Social Services Council, has been looking specifically at the structure and viability of the new four-year honours degree. It has developed Standards in Social Work Education (SiSWE) which parallel the Standards in Initial Teacher Education and equivalent documents being developed for nursing, midwifery and health visiting. This will allow us at a later date to identify common elements in the training of all these different professional disciplines. Incorporating as it does the Quality Assurance Agency benchmark statement, the National Occupational Standards and identifying expected outcomes at the point of qualification, the standardswill also streamline the assessment process and replace the current CCETSW competences against which students are currently assessed at the point of qualification.
A second project group is looking specifically at the place of practice learning in the new degree. Work has been commissioned to identify the current costs and funding of practice learning and student support costs associated with the placements. The group is clear that directly supervised and assessed practice will constitute an important part of the new degree course, but is keen to encourage more flexible and innovative approaches to placements including allowing relevant previous experience to be taken into account.
Both groups have been considering what transitional arrangements need to be put in place to allow the changeover from the existing Diploma in Social Work (DipSW) to the new degree to occur as smoothly as possible.
12. Developing the Role of the Specific Centres
The Executive now supports six specific centres (over £3 million per annum in total) and is collaborating with them to develop their role in line with meeting the training needs of the workforce in specific areas. The six centres are SIRCC (Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care); STRADA (Scottish Training on Drugs and Alcohol); Scottish Consortium on Learning Disabilities (SCLD); Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education (SIESWE); Dementia Development Centre, and the Criminal Justice Social Work Development Centre.
