2. Achieving national leadership and co-ordination
Success in implementing Changing Lives' recommendations will depend on widespread ownership of the change programme at all levels and in all parts of the system. The approach to implementation will build upon the participative approach established during the review process in order to ensure this. We will establish a number of national and local groups to take a lead on this work and put in place a communication strategy that will help people at all levels to be actively involved in the change process.
Cabinet Delivery Group
A 21 st Century Social Work Cabinet Delivery Group, to secure policy coherence across the key Ministerial portfolios, will be established. Membership will include:
The Minister for Education and Young People (chair)
The Minister for Communities
The Minister for Justice
The Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care
The Deputy Minister for Education and Young People
The Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform
The group will meet six monthly, ensuring the highest level commitment to delivering the implementation programme.
Social Work Services Forum
The Social Work Services Forum will bring together for the first time a broad range of stakeholders with an interest in social work services. Its remit will be to provide a nationally recognised source of informed opinion on all matters relating to the delivery of social work services, in order to enable effective strategic planning and direction. This will be a powerful group, chaired by the Minister for Education and Young People and will take forward discussions on some of the more complex and challenging issues raised by Changing Lives. Its members are all representative of organisations and will have a role in engaging their own constituents in the debate. The forum will inform and be informed by the work of the five change programmes, details of which are set out in section 3. It will undertake its work in an open and collaborative way, making its deliberations and working papers accessible at www.socialworkscotland.org.uk.
Users and Carers Forum
Shadowing the Social Work Services Forum will be a Users and Carers Forum. It will provide an opportunity for service users and carers to directly influence and shape the detail of implementation at national level. The forum will also contribute specific expertise to work within individual programmes and ensure that the service users' and carers' voices are heard within change networks as they evolve. Its membership is likely to vary over time to reflect the shape and scope of development work, supported by a core group. In this way, service users' and carers' will have real influence over the whole implementation process, ensuring that it is grounded in the need to deliver high quality, person centred services. This process will be managed and facilitated by the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability, who successfully facilitated the contribution of users and carers to the review process. The forum will commission or undertake focused pieces of work to ensure that the views of hard to reach groups such as children and the users of criminal justice services are also considered.
Practitioner Fora
Achieving the aspirations of Changing Lives will require leadership from the front line as well as from the top of organisations. In visits to local authority areas we have encouraged practitioners to consider their roles in making change happen. Creating a practitioner forum in each area will ensure that they have real influence in the process. A first national practitioner conference took place in June. Practitioners will debate the detail of such fora and how they can best be developed in their local context. Local fora will be established by the autumn and the chairs of these fora will meet nationally, with a representative sitting on the social work services forum. Support will be available to fund an annual conference and to give chairs some protected time to undertake their roles.
Working with local authorities and their partners
Our visits to each local authority area during the pre implementation phase have formed a basis for working relationships to support implementation. We plan to continue to build upon these relationships by having a named contact person in the Scottish Executive Social Work Services Policy division for each local authority. SWIA will also identify a link person for each authority, so collectively we can support ongoing development and maintain a constructive dialogue with each local authority system. A list of named contacts is available on the website www.socialworkscotland.org.uk.
Legislation
The Scottish Cabinet has committed to introduce new social work services legislation. The Scottish Executive's response to Changing Lives stated that such legislation should:
- 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;
- regulate to protect the functions of the registered social workers; and
- position social work services within the context of wider public services reforms.
A separate team will be established within Social Work Services Policy Division to take forward this work programme to a timescale to be agreed with Cabinet. We will consult widely to inform the scope and detail of the new Bill.
Communication Strategy
To support continued collaborative and participative working with stakeholders and to promote ownership of the programme for change across the whole sector, a rolling Communications Strategy will complement the Changing Lives Implementation Plan. This is being developed in consultation with the National Social Work Forum.
The key aims of the Communications Strategy will be to:
- identify opportunities to highlight the role of social work services and the difference they make to people's lives;
- engage and involve people across the whole public/voluntary/private sectors in the change programme;
- promote dialogue, information sharing and opportunities for joint working within the whole sector approach;
- inform people about the implementation programme and support them to deliver change;
- ensure that the interests of service users and carers continue to be represented and acted upon.
The Communications Strategy will set out a rolling programme that runs in parallel with the milestones and actions outlined in the Implementation Plan.
Social Work Scotland Website
A key aspect of the Communications Strategy is the development of the new Social Work Scotland website - www.socialworkscotland.org.uk. This site will enable visitors to access the range of information about the change programme for social work services. It will offer a range of practical resources, guidance and toolkits for those working in and with social work services. It will host discussion forums and groups and people with an interest in social work services will be able to directly post examples of practice, case histories, comments and ideas.