SASW’s response to the SSSC Convener’s Vision

We welcome SSSC Convener Peter Murray’s vision, much of which we wholeheartedly agree with and support. We agree that the voice of people with experience of using social work and social care services should be central to how we improve and redesign those services in the future. We also agree that more should be done to raise the profile of social work and social care with the public and politicians, and that the data collected by the SSSC has a role to play in supporting development across health, social care and social work.

However, we would caution against conflating coproduction with consultation. The experience of ‘coproducing’ the NCS legislation demonstrates that there are limits to what can be influenced when one party holds the power over what their vision for change is, and that is very rarely made explicit. We are also concerned about references to ‘social care’ registrants without recognising the reality of a distinct, highly trained and specialist social work profession. 

We welcome the SSSC’s sharing of the registrant survey data with The Scottish Government to inform policy, but we would also urge an exploration of opportunities to promote the substantive issues raised in the survey: pay, conditions, and public recognition. It would be useful to hear what the regulator is doing with the data beyond sharing it.

We are conscious that our members are also concerned about fitness to practice processes and the costs of registration. Therefore, we would welcome work to ensure regulation promotes professional confidence rather than defensive practice.

We enjoy an excellent and productive working relationship with colleagues across the SSSC, and as organisations we share goals of creating and maintaining a safe and well-supported social services workforce. We look forward to continuing our work with Peter and the dedicated staff team at SSSC to further these goals. 

You can read Peter's vision here: New SSSC Convener shares his vision