foreword
Peter Peacock
Minister for Education and Young People
Social workers undertake some of the most demanding tasks society asks of any group of staff. Very often their work goes unseen and unrecognised. Too often the only time we hear of social workers is on those occasions where, among the many things that go right, something has gone tragically wrong. Over many years, society has come to expect more of social work and has asked social work to do more. Local authorities have been key to delivering social work services over many years and they have operated increasingly with a range of other providers in the public, private and voluntary sectors and with users of services and carers. Their task has been complex and demanding but, since the mid 1960s, some forty years ago, when the foundations of today's social work services were laid, there has not been a considered overview or examination of how social work was performing and whether it was equipped to meet the challenges and expectations placed upon it. For many within social work and more widely there is great uncertainty about future direction and a lack of confidence amidst rising public expectations and growing complexity of need.
It was in recognition of the need to reflect on current performance and future direction, to bring fresh clarity and purpose to social work, that Ministers commissioned the 21st Century Review of Social Work. We invited a review group of highly experienced practitioners from within social work and the other professions and sectors with which modern social work interacts to report to Ministers. William Roe was invited to chair and lead the deliberations of the group and I am grateful to him for providing the leadership we sought. The group have taken over a year to complete their task, during which time they have engaged widely with the profession and stakeholders and published an interim report as a basis for seeking further views and refining their findings and proposals to Ministers.
I very much welcome the findings of the 21st Century Social Work Review. The review group have responded to their challenging brief with a commendable clarity of vision for the future of social work services in Scotland. I would like to thank them for the rigorous and participative approach to their work, which has produced such clear and persuasive conclusions. I would also like to thank the many hundreds of people from varied backgrounds who have participated in the work of the review for their openness and honesty about both the strengths and the weaknesses of social work.
The review has clearly told Ministers that the current approach and the responses we collectively make to ever growing demands are unsustainable. This is a stark finding and the report not only provides us with the opportunity and an exciting agenda for change, it places an obligation upon us to drive and facilitate change.
Changing Lives sets out a compelling vision of the future of social work services in Scotland and some clear but challenging actions that will be required to make that vision a reality.
I was particularly keen to signal our support for the review group's findings and the direction of travel they envisage with an early response that accepts the findings in principle and builds upon the consensus for change that I believe the review has developed over the last year. Considering the full implications of the report's recommendations will obviously take longer and will need to engage many stakeholders at national and local levels. We will do this over coming weeks and months and we will set out a further and more detailed response later in the year in the form of an implementation plan to drive the changes envisaged.
Our commitment to put the needs of the people and communities who rely on social work services first will require changes across the public sector. The report of the review recognises and deals with this challenge very effectively, setting out an overall package of reforms which I welcome as both challenging, yet achievable. Throughout the period of the review, an ad hoc sub-committee of the Cabinet has kept closely in touch with its progress, ensuring that portfolio ministers making the primary policies affecting social work have been directly engaged. This group will now evolve into a Cabinet Delivery Group overseeing the implementation of change, demonstrating our cross Executive commitment to the development of social work. Local authorities will remain at the heart of future service delivery. I am committed to working with them and their partners in the public, voluntary and private sectors, who they will work ever more closely with, to deliver change.
Among the many recommendations we will act on and which arise from this report, I will highlight at this stage the following actions we will take forward as being particularly important. We will:
- establish a system for setting national priorities in social work services as the basis of providing clarity of purpose and prioritising future action;
- deliver a culture of continuous improvement in service delivery through a new performance improvement framework;
- establish a rolling process for driving social work service redesign at the local level on an inter-agency basis;
- invest in developing the leadership the profession will need into the future;
- strengthen the role of the Chief Social Work Officer and emphasise a responsibility for professional leadership and governance;
- create the framework and support for front line social workers to have more devolved authority and operate more autonomously within an accountable framework;
- support the creation of new opportunities for skilled front line social workers to remain in front line practice for their whole career;
- encourage the development of a new para-professional role to work under the direction of social workers and equipped to work across professional boundaries, promoting joined up working;
- ensure that people who use services and their carers have ever greater choice and involvement in decisions about their own care and the design and delivery of services, through new approaches to the co-production of services;
- expect our universities and colleges to work together and with stakeholders to review current programmes of education and training to ensure they equip our next generation of workers with the skills they will need to meet the demands of modernised practice and that our universities and colleges are active participants in the change process;
- legislate to give Ministers and Parliament powers in setting national priorities and the performance improvement framework and provide a new foundation for social work services based on improving personal and community wellbeing;
- deliver additional resources to support the change process following further consideration of a detailed implementation plan and steer required changes in a co-ordinated way through a Cabinet Delivery Group of key Ministers.
The publication of the report and the outline of actions above is only the start in turning the review group's aspirations into reality. A reality that needs to engage the hearts and minds of all of those working in social work services. Above all, it needs to make a real and measurable difference to those people who use services, whether out of choice or because they are compelled to do so. Changing Lives gives us a unique opportunity to make fundamental and lasting change in social work. That goal can be achieved by supporting change and making full and effective use of all of the £2.4 billion that we spend every year on social work services.
Social work needs to be back on a sustainable course, as part of a whole public sector approach to meeting the needs of Scotland's most vulnerable individuals, families and communities. The actions set out in this response will ensure we can achieve that outcome and I invite all those with a role to play to embrace the challenges with enthusiasm and confidence.
Peter Peacock
Minister for Education and Young People