CPG on Social Work holds April meeting

The Cross-Party Group on Social Work held its second online meeting on Wednesday 27 April with another excellent turnout.

The group brings together social workers, stakeholder organisations and MSPs to discuss issues affecting the profession and ways to make positive changes.

The first meeting took place in January and discussed “perspectives of social work”, covering workload pressures, challenges caused by lack of resources and how we can raise the profile of the profession.

This led to a parliamentary motion being lodged by the Chair of the group, Fulton MacGregor MSP, to highlight some of these areas and achieve a cross-party commitment from MSPs to engage with the profession to make changes when the National Care Service Bill comes to parliament.

The second meeting focussed on “access to care and support”, looking specifically at the challenges faced by people in accessing care and support and the benefits of social workers having the ability to intervene earlier.

The group heard presentations from Dr Emma Miller (Social Worker and Academic), Arlene Howe (person of lived experience), Ben Farrugia (Director of Social Work Scotland) and Colin Slasberg (Commentator and Researcher).  

Each presentation gave a unique perspective into how we can improve access to care and support, which laid the foundations for a wide-ranging and important group discussion on what we want MSPs and the Scottish Government to prioritise over the coming months.

Fulton MacGregor MSP concluded the meeting by committing to looking at how the group can use parliamentary levers to highlight these issues to Ministers and we welcome the chance to explore these options with him ahead of the next meeting. He also highlighted a workshop taking place on 20 June which will explore alternatives to eligibility criteria and will act as a useful follow-on from the meeting.

Of course, you can feedback any thoughts to the CPG at anytime and also attend future meetings as a member of the group or as an observer. Please contact cpgsocialwork@basw.co.uk for more information.