Scottish Government

A Change Programme for social work services

Social work services need to play a full and active part in delivering our vision for public services as a whole. They need to be part of a joined up approach, which really puts service users and their carers at the centre and which focuses on preventing crises rather than managing them. The recommendations set out in Changing Lives gives us a framework to drive forward that change.

Our proposals for delivering that change are based on six key pillars:

• national priorities and a focus on performance improvement driven by achieving the right outcomes;
• transforming services and the way they are delivered;
• a strong, autonomous and accountable social work profession;
• a capable, well prepared and supported workforce;
• a new approach to practice governance that promotes excellence and organisational learning; and
• enabling and empowering leadership at all levels.

A focus on performance improvement

We propose to develop national priorities for social work services. This will allow all service providers to focus on an agreed set of goals. The performance improvement frameworks and national priorities will allow everyone to focus on what really matters. It will also allow us to review and rationalise data collection requirements as part of our approach to efficient government and provide a basis for working with regulators to reduce the inspection burden on services.

At the heart of our change programme is a new focus on performance improvement, driving up standards and ensuring that services are focused on achieving the right outcomes for the people who use them and their families and carers. This approach has already delivered real improvements in the education sector, reflected in the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc Act (2000) and the learning from this has informed the thinking of the working group developing the framework for social work services.

The performance improvement framework for children and families services, based on our aspirations for children, is now almost complete. Work is underway on developing performance improvement frameworks for other areas of social work services. The new frameworks will drive up standards and develop a focus on performance improvement across the sector, while streamlining business processes and significantly reducing the number of existing performance indicators. Performance against them will form part of reporting by Chief Social Work Officers.

Achieving improvements in performance across the whole sector is a significant challenge. It will require a change of culture across social work services, with everyone having a role to play. Social work education providers in particular will have a vital role in ensuring that their students are committed and equipped to continuously improve their performance.

Transforming services and the way they are delivered

Delivering services that are more personalised around the needs of the people who use them and which are able to deliver the sorts of outcomes we require of them will not be a quick or easy option. It will require new approaches to service design, commissioning and performance assessment. It will require strong accountable professionals and a well informed, competent workforce. Commitment will be needed at all levels to the principles set out in Changing Lives, as will the capacity to make real and lasting changes across social work and partner agencies. Developing that capacity will require greater acknowledgement of the contribution that the private and voluntary sector can make through new approaches to commissioning and more imaginative management of the market.

The capacity to deliver change on such a scale is limited and we need new capacity in both skills, people and resources to support the change process. We therefore propose to invest support and resources in developing new approaches and managing the process of lasting change. That will include:

• developing, with stakeholders, new approaches to commissioning which make most effective use of the knowledge and expertise or all partners; and
• supporting the change process through new investment in service re-design, bringing additional expertise and capacity to bear to support local change, test out new approaches and promote good practice and shared learning through interactive networks.

A strong, autonomous and accountable social work profession

Changing Lives concluded that "social workers' skills are highly valued and increasingly relevant to the changing needs of society. Yet we are far from making the best use of these skills". An essential pillar of our change programme therefore will be to strengthen the profession, ensuring that social workers have the confidence and competence to address the increasingly complex needs of society's most vulnerable people.

A strong accountable and autonomous profession is vital to our aspirations for social work. Social workers need to be equipped to fulfil a challenging role, helping people to change their lives, to open up choices and help raise aspirations. Service users should be encouraged and supported to break out of, rather than accepting or being locked into, their current circumstances wherever that is achievable. Social workers need to be confident to make constructive use of authority to promote change when it is in the best interests of the individual or community. Transforming the delivery of services will require the efforts of social workers to be focused on doing those things that they are best equipped to do, enabling experienced workers to develop and expand their careers without moving out of practice and developing a strong focus on research and development to inform effective practice. It will also require social workers to be clear about their personal professional accountability for their actions and be supported to practise more autonomously.

The change programme will include:

• setting out in regulation the protected functions of the social worker, ensuring that we have clarity about those things that legislation requires only social workers to do and providing a strong foundation for more effective joint working and skill mix;
• developing, with local authorities, the Scottish Social Service Council and other stakeholders, a career structure for social workers, that provides a range of career options in practice and leadership. This will make sure that professionals are able to follow practice based careers that offer variety and progression while continuing to use their skills to help people;
• developing, with the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education and partners, a strategy for research and development that not only strengthens the evidence base for effective practice, but also develops the research capability of the workforce and provides practical resources for front line staff, allowing them to base their practice on the best available evidence. An early priority for this work will be evidence based approaches to risk assessment and management; and
• developing, with the Scottish Social Service Council, a clear framework of professional accountability for social workers.

A capable, well prepared and supported workforce

Developing social workers and other professionals in the social service workforce as accountable, autonomous practitioners will undoubtedly require a culture shift. It is an approach that we fully endorse and which is entirely in line with our commitment in Partnership for a Better Scotland (2003) to devolve decision making to the most local level and empower front line staff to take decisions wherever practical. Taking this forward will require investment in developing the whole workforce, building a learning culture and supporting learning for practice at all levels, making sure that everyone has the necessary skills to fulfil their roles. It will require the devolution of decision making and the right mix of skills in teams to ensure that best use is made of everyone's expertise.

In November 2005, we published the National Strategy for the Development of the Social Service Workforce in Scotland 2005-2010: a Plan for Action. The findings of the review and its recommendations are wholly in line with the actions set out in the strategy which will make a real difference to the capability and confidence of the workforce. We have already committed to implement the strategy and will ensure that the two strands of work are taken forward together. This will include:

• identifying and developing new specialist programmes, high quality educational resources to support them and supporting flexible methods of delivery; and
• additional investment to support learning and development for social service workers, promoting the development of new skills, professional autonomy and high standards of practice.

Developing the capability of the workforce will require all involved in the education and training of the social service workforce to ensure that their teaching and learning embraces the ambitious agenda for social work services set out in Changing Lives. Scotland's universities and colleges have a vital role to play in shaping the workforce needed now and in the future, equipping them with the skills they will need as well as contributing to the broader vision of social work services. A critical first step will be for universities and colleges engaged in the learning and development of the social service workforce to work together and with stakeholders in reviewing their current programmes to ensure that they contribute fully to the change programme.

Making effective use of professional skills will require the right mix of skills and support in teams. As Changing Lives highlights, much professional time is currently taken up with work that doesn't require their level of expertise. We will therefore develop the concept of the paraprofessional worker working alongside and under the direction of social workers, with a common set of competencies and job profile, that articulate with other professions and agencies, producing workers who are capable of working across boundaries. Paraprofessionals will have a vital role in balancing the mix of skills in teams and ensuring we make best use of professional social worker time and expertise.

A new approach to practice governance that promotes excellence and organisational learning

Strong, autonomous and accountable professionals will challenge traditional approaches to the ways that services are organised and managed, requiring a shift away from traditional line management arrangements towards more empowered front line workers. Because there is inherent risk in any decision taken by social workers, organisations will need new approaches to governance, based on devolution of decision making and clear accountability of workers, backed up by proper professional support a strong culture of individual and organisational learning and a commitment to promoting excellence.

We welcome the fresh approach to practice governance taken by the review. Making this concept work will require new approaches, changed management arrangements and skills development across the system. Over time, we anticipate that the combination of devolved responsibility and new governance arrangements will produce efficiencies in management costs that can be reinvested to support front line practice audit, education and organisational learning. However, it won't be achieved easily or quickly. We will therefore invest in developing new systems and approaches to practice governance, working with partners to develop and implement new guidance. As part of that work we are committed to re-defining and strengthening the role of the Chief Social Work Officer, with an emphasis on professional leadership and governance, whatever the management structure may be.

We will also develop, with key stakeholders, a toolkit to support devolution of authority and decision making to front line staff, learning from existing good practice and promoting safe and effective decision making within a devolved system.

Enabling and empowering leadership at all levels

Effective, visionary leadership will undoubtedly be needed at every level in order to turn the aspirations of the review into real and sustainable change. The need for effective leadership has been recognised across the public service, with creative approaches being developed and deployed in health, education and police sectors. The review's acknowledgement of the similar challenges being addressed across the public sector creates the opportunity to find new approaches to developing leaders and champions for social work at all levels of the system. We have already seen the major impact of the Leading to Deliver programme, funded by the Executive and delivered in partnership with the Scottish Leadership Foundation. The programme has promoted innovation and creativity and developed a cohort of champions across social work services. We now need to expand both the scope of leadership development and the scale of such development. We will therefore develop a new leadership framework that articulates with those across other public services and encompasses leadership at all levels. We will use this as a basis for extensive leadership development activity within social work services.

The quality and clarity of contribution to the review from the users and carers panel in particular underlines the vital contribution that people who use services and their carers can and should make to the design and delivery of services. We recognise the good work that many providers already do to engage service users in shaping services. However, we agree with the review's conclusion that delivering truly personalised services will require a new approach, developing citizen leadership alongside professional leadership. We will develop this approach further, in partnership with the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability, and support its implementation across social work services, ensuring that people who use services and their carers have a strong voice in the way that they are designed and delivered.

Driving the change process

Achieving the transformation in social work services to which we aspire will not be easy or quick. The change will need to be owned and led both locally and nationally and will need to engage people at all levels and in all parts of the system. This will include:

• at Cabinet level, a Cabinet Delivery Group of key Ministers will oversee the change programme, ensuring the active engagement of portfolio Ministers and a strong impetus for change;
• a National Social Work Services Forum will be established, chaired by the Minister for Education and Young People. This will bring together practitioners, leaders, policy makers and academics from social work and partner agencies to take a lead on the development of social work. This forum will help to influence and direct the type of whole system change envisaged by the review;
• tight programme management arrangements will be established for each workstream, managed by the Social Work Services Policy Division and engaging people from across the sector, overseen by a small steering group;
• a variety of regional and national networks will bring together partner agencies to develop new approaches and share learning around key strands of the change programme;
• at local level practitioner fora in each local authority area will ensure that front line practitioners across public, private and voluntary sectors have a real voice in shaping practice. A national forum will create, for the first time, a direct means for front line practitioners to have an influence on the development of policy and practice. They will be charged with organising an annual conference as a celebration of practice; and
• underpinning all of this, the Social Work Inspection Agency will play a crucial role in leading social work practice, ensuring that inspection processes drive change at local level.

The Executive will support the whole change process with additional funding.

Legislating to embed change

Changing Lives has set out a compelling need to change the direction of social work services, making them fit to face future challenges and demands. The review is a watershed in the development of Scottish social work. Many regard the 1968 Social Work (Scotland) Act as the birth of social work as we know it today. Modern legislation will ensure that we provide a new foundation for future service delivery, consolidating change across the whole system. It will mark social work's coming of age as a mature profession, focusing services on promoting wellbeing, rather than the more paternalistic welfare model underpinning current legislation. We will take forward further discussion within the Executive and with interested parties on the scope and shape of any new legislation in the wider context of public service reform.

It will be particularly important for any new social work legislation to:

• shift the focus from the language of welfare to that of wellbeing, recognising the partnership between individuals and the state and reflecting new principles of personalised services, while recognising the compulsory nature of some practice;
• embed national priorities and performance improvement arrangements, ensuring that services are focused on the right outcomes, backed by a culture of performance improvement;
• set out new governance arrangements for social work, which ensure a proactive, systematic approach to managing risk and promoting excellence;
• enshrine the role of service users and carers in the design and delivery of services, through the development of citizen leadership programmes; and
• position social work services within the context of wider public services reforms.