Public Service Reform: Pre-budget scrutiny 2027-28
Introduction
The Scottish Association of Social Work welcomes the opportunity to respond to this consultation. Our position reflects the experience of social workers across Scotland. This includes children and families social work, adult social work, and justice social work.
Across all these areas, Scotland’s social work services are experiencing unprecedented pressure. Years of efficiency savings have removed many of the upstream and preventative supports that keep people out of crisis. We have recently been clear that Scotland is now investing in failure. We are spending more on crisis responses because the early help, social care capacity and community support offers that reduce demand have been cut away.
This submission sets out how public service reform can be made sustainable, affordable and effective.
1. Efficiency savings of zero point five billion pounds per year
a. To what extent are these savings achievable, and how will they shape public service delivery
These savings are not realistically achievable from the social work and social care sector without significant harm, because the system has already absorbed the majority of efficiencies that can be made without undermining statutory duties.
Scotland has already removed much of the preventive infrastructure that keeps people out of crisis. Preventative supports such as early help, family support, community justice programmes, social care capacity and rehabilitation services have been eroded by years of efficiency savings. As a result, Scotland is now spending more on crisis responses. This includes high‑cost secure care placements, as shown by the emergency in children’s care.
Social work services are increasingly required to absorb the impact of efficiency measures implemented across other public service sectors. Unlike some services, such as healthcare, statutory social work functions cannot operate waiting lists for many areas of statutory intervention, as these duties are driven by assessed need and legal responsibilities.
Efficiency savings in other sectors can also result in increased demand on social work services. For example, extended waiting times for mental health assessment and treatment often require social work services to undertake prolonged risk management and support responsibilities for individuals awaiting intervention. Similarly, reductions in capacity and resources within the education sector can contribute to increased pressures on social work services, as emerging needs and risks may require additional assessment, intervention, and support. As a result, efficiencies realised elsewhere in the system have already led to both increased demand and greater complexity of workload within social work services.
Further efficiency savings, on their own, would likely deepen crisis, increase risk and drive up long‑term expenditure.
b. What progress is being made towards achieving these efficiencies
Local government and social work have already absorbed many years of efficiency measures. These include vacancy management, frozen posts, short‑term funding and erosion of conditions. The Scottish Social Services Council workforce reports show justice social work, children’s services and adult social care operating with unsafe workloads and rising stress. In fact, every recent report on the workforce has shown that our members, and their colleagues, are working beyond capacity in an under-resourced system that undermines them. Workforce pressures have also reduced the sector’s ability to offer high‑quality supervision and learning time, which further undermines safe practice and may ultimately impact the outcomes achieved for people who rely on social work support.
These pressures have not delivered genuine efficiencies. They have increased crisis spending, reduced capacity for prevention, driven up long‑term costs and increased risk in adult social care, child protection and justice social work.
c. What are the barriers to achieving greater efficiency and how can these be addressed
Barriers include chronic underfunding of local government and social work, removal of upstream and preventative services that previously reduced demand, short‑term budgets that prevent long‑term planning, complex reporting and inspection requirements across justice, children’s services and adult care, and rising demand driven by poverty, trauma, addiction and housing insecurity. Increasing duties in relation to statutory reviews also increase demand across social work services.
These barriers can be addressed through multi‑year funding settlements for councils, rebuilding supports such as early help, social care capacity, rehabilitation and family support, investment in workforce wellbeing, protected learning time and manageable caseloads, and simplification of reporting, review and audit processes.
2. Presentation of realised efficiencies in the annual budget
The annual budget should clearly distinguish between efficiencies and cuts. It should identify recurring savings and non‑recurring savings.
Each efficiency should include a short description of its impact on public safety, risk management and statutory duties.
3. Workforce reduction of zero point five per cent per year
a. To what extent is this target achievable and how will it shape public service delivery
Social work already faces severe recruitment and retention challenges. Reducing the workforce further would increase the public protection risk. If this target includes social work and social care, it is not achievable without serious harm. However, reductions in other areas may be achievable, but we should be completely clear that social work does not operate in isolation, and colleagues in allied professions and community services as a whole need significant investment. It is therefore unclear where these reductions might be made without significant impacts on society and community cohesion. It is therefore unclear where reductions could be made without displacing risk onto other parts of the public sector, including health, education and housing.
b. What progress is being made towards achieving this target
As we do not record unmet need, understanding the number of social workers and social care workers needed in Scotland is almost impossible. If we want to reduce the workforce, we first need to understand what workforce is needed and then work on plans to reduce demand for services. This would in all likelihood require significant drops in persistent poverty and alleviation of the housing crisis, amongst other measures.
4. Actions to manage workforce reductions while supporting effective delivery
Workforce reductions in social work and social care cannot be managed safely unless the Scottish Government recognises the structural pressures that already exist across the system. Social work in Scotland is experiencing rising demand, increasing complexity, higher levels of poverty and trauma, and significant workforce stress. These pressures are present in children and families social work, adult social work and justice social work, and accompanying social care and third and independent sector services.
In many areas, workforce reductions have already occurred informally through vacancy management, frozen posts and staff leaving due to stress. These reductions have not been planned or managed. They have reduced capacity for early help, relationship‑based practice and preventative support. They have also increased crisis demand, which is more expensive and more harmful for individuals and communities.
To manage any further reductions in a way that protects public service delivery, the Scottish Government should take the following actions.
1 – Rebuild upstream and preventative supports
Upstreaming is essential. When early help, social care capacity, community support and preventative services are available, demand for statutory intervention reduces. When these services are removed, crisis demand increases.
The Scottish Government should rebuild early help, family support, community justice programmes, social care capacity and rehabilitation services. This will reduce pressure on statutory services and allow workforce reductions to be managed more safely. It will also reduce long‑term costs by preventing crisis escalation. This aligns with the Scottish Association of Social Work position that Scotland is currently investing in failure by spending more on crisis responses because preventative supports have been cut. Rebuilding upstream supports must include restoring self‑directed support budgets to levels that reflect assessed need. Such reductions have limited people’s ability to remain safely at home.
2 – Introduce multi‑year funding settlements
Short‑term budgets force councils and social work services to make reactive decisions. Multi‑year funding would allow councils to plan workforce changes in a structured way. It would also allow services to redesign roles, invest in prevention and manage transitions without destabilising frontline delivery.
Multi‑year funding is essential for effective workforce planning and for protecting statutory duties.
3 – Protect core statutory roles and functions
Social work carries statutory responsibilities that cannot be reduced without increasing risk. These include child protection, adult protection, mental health officer duties, community justice, parole and licence management, prison throughcare, secure care decision‑making and social care assessment.
4 – Invest in workforce wellbeing and retention
Workforce reductions are experienced as increased workload for remaining staff. This can lead to burnout, sickness absence and further turnover. For the social work and social care sector, these issues are already endemic. The Scottish Government should invest in protected learning time, reflective supervision, manageable caseloads and wellbeing supports.
5 – Simplify reporting, inspection and administrative requirements
Social workers spend significant time on burdensome and complex administrative tasks. Simplification would free time for direct work and reduce pressure on staff. Current reporting requirements often duplicate information across multiple systems, partnerships and inspectorates, creating avoidable workload.
If workforce reductions occur, simplification becomes essential. Without it, fewer staff will be expected to complete the same volume of administrative work, which will reduce time for direct practice and increase risk.
6 – Ensure that workforce reductions do not undermine The Promise
Children’s services are already under extreme pressure. Workforce reductions in these areas would undermine The Promise, increase crisis placements and drive up long‑term costs while harming outcomes for children. The Scottish Government need to ensure sufficient resource to meet the new duties introduced in the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) Act 2026.
The Scottish Government should ensure that workforce planning aligns with The Promise, other national ambitions and long‑term public policy commitments.
5. Clarity on frontline roles and back office efficiencies
Cuts to services have already all but removed back office administrative support for social workers. Tasks such as case recording, risk assessment, multi‑agency public protection arrangements coordination and court report writing are often labelled back office but are essential to public safety.
Efficiency measures in these areas risk increasing the administrative burden on frontline social workers, reducing time for relational work and increasing risk to communities by making front-line workers responsible for the tasks previously completed by what little back office staff there are. Many social workers tell us their administration staff have already been cut or removed entirely, and this is impacting their ability to spend time focused on people. This is precisely the opposite of reducing the administrative burden on social workers. The cost implications of using an expensive, specialist resource to undertake routine administrative tasks should not be underestimated.
6. Key outcomes reform should aim for beyond financial savings
Reform must aim for outcomes that strengthen the safety, wellbeing and rights of people across Scotland. Financial savings alone cannot deliver sustainable public services. Reform must focus on rebuilding the capacity of social work and social care to support people earlier, more effectively and in ways that reduce long‑term demand for crisis intervention.
The Scottish Association of Social Work recommends that reform should aim for the following outcomes.
1 – Reduced reoffending through strengthened community justice and rehabilitation
Community justice programmes, payback orders, rehabilitation services and structured support reduce reoffending and improve community safety. Reform should strengthen these services and ensure that justice social work has the capacity to deliver high‑quality supervision, risk assessment and rehabilitation. This includes safe and effective parole and licence management and strong prison throughcare.
2 – Rebuilt upstream supports that reduce crisis demand
Upstreaming is essential. Scotland has removed many of the early help and preventative supports that previously reduced demand for statutory intervention. Reform should rebuild early help, family support, community‑based services, social care capacity and self‑directed support resourcing. These reduce crisis escalation and allow people to remain safely in their communities. They also reduce long‑term costs by preventing the need for high‑cost crisis responses. Reform should also ensure that self‑directed support is funded as a preventative mechanism rather than rationed according to affordability.
3 – A safe care system for children and young people
The recent statement by all 32 of Scotland’s Chief Social Work Officers makes clear that Scotland is experiencing a severe shortage of safe emergency placements for children. This shortage is so acute that social workers have reported taking children home because no alternative safe place can be found. Children have also been placed with young adults or in expensive independent provision that is used out of necessity rather than assessed need.
This situation should not be normalised. When emergency placements do not exist, children who are not safe at home can remain in unsafe environments. This creates potentially catastrophic consequences for those children, with predictable consequences for future demand for complex support, and places an unacceptable level of pressure on the workforce. The CSWO statement makes clear that this shortage is a national issue, not isolated to particular local authorities.
4 – Improved workforce wellbeing and retention
Workforce wellbeing is essential for safe practice. Social workers across adult services, children’s services and justice services report high workloads, stress and limited capacity for reflective practice. Reform should aim to improve wellbeing, retention and protected learning time. This will support safe practice and reduce turnover, which is costly and destabilising. Workforce wellbeing must be treated as a core component of public safety, not an optional enhancement.
5 – Stronger local government capacity to deliver statutory duties
Local government is responsible for delivering many statutory duties, including child protection, adult protection, mental health officer responsibilities, community justice and social care assessment. Reform should strengthen local government capacity by providing multi‑year funding, reducing administrative burden and ensuring that statutory duties are fully resourced.
6 – Parity for social work within integrated settings
Social work must have parity of voice and influence within integrated settings. Reform should ensure that social work expertise is valued and that social workers can contribute fully to strategic planning, service design and decision‑making. This will improve outcomes for people and strengthen the effectiveness of integrated services.
7 – A clear shift from crisis spending to prevention
Reform should aim for a measurable shift in spending from crisis responses to preventative supports. This includes investment in early help, social care capacity, community justice programmes and self‑directed support. This shift will reduce long‑term costs and improve outcomes for people across Scotland.
7. Simplification, prevention and budget setting
a. What should the Scottish Government’s priorities be under its simplification workstream and what level of savings can be achieved through this approach
The Social Work Scotland report The State and Future of Social Work and Social Care Funding in Scotland describes a system shaped by short‑term, fragmented funding, complex governance and limited financial transparency, particularly around health and social care budgets. This fragmentation undermines rights‑based practice, prevention and trust, especially in self‑directed support where reductions to personal budgets have constrained choice and control for disabled people and carers. The report also highlights that fragmented funding creates inequity, with people in similar circumstances receiving different levels of support depending on local budget pressures.
Simplification should therefore focus on:
1 – Reducing fragmentation and increasing transparency: Funding for social work and social care, including self‑directed support, should be brought into clearer, more coherent structures. People should experience support as a single, rights‑based system, not a patchwork of pots and rules.
2 – Streamlining processes, not cutting support: Assessment, review and monitoring processes should be simplified so that social workers spend more time on direct, relationship‑based practice and less on repeated administrative tasks.
3 – Clarifying governance and accountability: Roles and responsibilities between national government, local authorities and partnerships should be clearer, so that funding decisions and their impacts on practice are transparent and understood.
The report is clear that social care is not merely a cost but an investment, with every pound invested in adult social care generating significant societal benefit. Savings from simplification should therefore be seen primarily as productivity gains and reduced waste and should be reinvested into frontline social work and social care rather than used to reduce overall spending.
b. What progress has been made to date with preventative budgeting
Scotland has not yet achieved meaningful preventative budgeting.
Key points include:
1 – Systemic underinvestment in prevention and early intervention: The report identifies a widening structural gap between rising need and constrained funding, with prevention and early intervention consistently underfunded. Preventative budgeting has been further constrained by the erosion of local authority reserves, which limits the ability to shift resources towards early intervention.
2 – SDS budget reductions and rationing of support: Reductions to self‑directed support budgets, particularly option one direct payments, have reduced flexibility and choice, leading to arrangements that are less responsive to individual need and more focused on affordability. This is the opposite of preventative budgeting.
3 – Emergency pressures in children’s care: The Emergency Children’s Care System statement shows that lack of investment in much‑needed children’s care placements, foster care and local, preventative and family support services has contributed to a situation where safe emergency placements are not available when needed.
Overall, budgets remain heavily skewed towards crisis responses, with prevention treated as discretionary rather than core infrastructure.
c. How should the forthcoming Budget support greater progress towards preventative budgeting across the devolved public sector
The forthcoming Budget should treat social work and social care as vital investment in Scotland’s wellbeing and economic resilience, not simply as a cost.
Key actions should be:
1 – Multi‑year, outcomes‑focused funding for prevention: Provide stable, multi‑year funding for early help, family support, community‑based adult support and self‑directed support, linked to clear outcomes around reduced crisis demand and improved rights‑based practice.
2 – Protect and restore SDS as a rights‑based mechanism: Ensure that self‑directed support budgets reflect assessed need and legal rights, rather than being driven primarily by affordability. This is central to prevention, autonomy and dignity.
3 – Embed prevention as a core budget principle: Require that budget plans demonstrate how investment in prevention will reduce future demand for crisis services, with transparent reporting on shifts in spending from crisis to prevention.
4 – Support workforce capacity for preventative, relationship‑based practice: Invest in social work posts, protected learning time and manageable caseloads so that practitioners can work preventatively rather than only in crisis.
The Budget should also ensure that funding for children’s services reflects the true cost of providing safe placements, including emergency provision.
Barriers include short‑term political cycles, fragmented funding and a culture of managing scarcity rather than investing in people. The report explicitly calls for a national conversation about social care funding, which should be reflected in the Budget process.
d. What changes to the Scottish Government’s approach to budget setting are needed to effectively deliver public service reform
To deliver effective reform, budget setting must move away from annual, incremental adjustments and towards a strategic, rights‑based and preventative approach.
Key changes should be:
1 – Multi‑year, transparent budgets for social work and social care: Provide clear, multi‑year allocations for social work and social care, with transparency about how health and social care funding is divided and used.
2 – Centre lived experience and workforce reality in budget decisions: The Social Work Scotland reports on creating sustainable social care have a core purpose to connect lived experience, workforce reality and financial analysis. Budget setting should explicitly draw on these perspectives, recognising the human impact of funding decisions.
3 – Treat social care as essential infrastructure: Recognise that social care is a lifeline that shapes dignity, opportunity and independent living, and that underfunding it threatens statutory duties and sustainability.
4 – Align budgets with rights, not only with affordability: Ensure that funding decisions support the practical realisation of rights under the Self‑Directed Support Act and care reform legislation, rather than eroding them through rationing and reductions.
Budget setting should explicitly recognise that social work demand is driven by structural factors such as poverty, housing insecurity and inequality, which cannot be mitigated through efficiency alone.
These changes would move Scotland from managing scarcity towards investing in people and prevention, and would make public service reform more sustainable, rights‑based and trusted.
8. Invest to Save Fund
a. To what extent is the Fund delivering ongoing savings
The Fund is essential but too small relative to the scale of crisis in social work. Ongoing savings will only be achieved if projects strengthen community services that reduce crisis demand and improve workforce wellbeing and retention.
Investing now will reap savings in the future, savings implemented now in the form of workforce reductions, are all but guaranteed to create additional spend in crisis management in years to come. Any government budgetary considerations need to understand this and understand that vast swathes of public services are already cut to breaking point and beyond.
Scotland needs to consider what its core spending priorities are and focus on them. We have too many national priorities, which are noble, but with no money to realise them, we are spreading the butter too thin with our current revenue raising. We need to decide what it is we want as public service and then resource that appropriately.
b. How are successful outcomes being shared
We should not expect transformation with such a small budget. Project evaluations should be clearly published and shared with public sector bodies and representative organisations.
References:
The State and Future of Social Work and Social Care Funding in Scotland - Social Work Scotland