Scottish Government

Scotland needs a social services workforce which is: competent, confident and valued; capable of delivering personalised and flexible services which deliver improved outcomes for people and communities; able to work effectively with partners in delivery of high quality, safe, continually improving and user/carer focussed services.

This requires a strategic focus on developing and improving the workforce, including appropriate registration and regulation, in addition to the key responsibility of employers across the sector - public, voluntary and private - to ensure that they put in place a context in which their workforce is enabled to deliver improved outcomes for service users.

Significant progress has been made and outcomes achieved since the establishment in 2004 of the 21st Century Social Work Review which resulted in the Changing Lives report published in 2006.

• Read the Changing Lives report
• Find out about the key outcomes of the social work review

Scottish Social Services Council

• Potential funding sources to support workforce training and development

Voluntary Sector Development Fund

The Voluntary Sector Development Fund (VSDF) was set up in 2003 to assist the voluntary sector workforce to meet the Scottish Social Services Council's registration requirements. The current level of funding for this annual fund is £1m. This fund provides a contribution to the cost of training staff required to register under phase one and phase two of the SSSC's registration requirements.