SASW Meets Paul McLennan MSP

SASW Professional Officer, Karin Heber met with Paul McLennan MSP to discuss our campaigns to improve wellbeing and working conditions for social workers.

Mr McLennan is an SNP MSP for East Lothian. He was first elected last year after previously serving as leader of East Lothian Council. 

Discussions focused on the findings of the Setting the Bar report, which makes clear the urgent need for greater support for social workers and to increase the workforce. Much of this cannot wait until the establishment of a National Care Service or National Social Work Agency. Investment in the profession to equip social workers with the resources they need is paramount.

We also highighted the recent revelations that Scotland is significantly short of Mental Health Officers across 26 local authorities, accounting for almost 3000 lost hours a week. This is having a serious impact on the wellbeing of social workers and on people who need to use services. Workforce planning and increasing opportunities to study social work are essential to having enough social workers to meet demand. We were pleased to hear Mr McLennan agree with us on this point and agree to look at how we could work together to make improvements in this area.

In addition, we outlined why it's important for social work to be kept together in a new National Care Service and agreed to keep Mr McLennan and his team informed of our views on the legislation as it proceeds through parliament. MSPs will have opportunities to amend the Bill at various points and we're committed to working with all MSPs to make changes that benefit social workers.

Our thanks again to Mr McLennan for giving up his time to meet with us and his commitment to work with us on these campaign areas. We also hope he'll be available to attend a cross-party group meeting very soon!

If you would like to learn more about our Policy or Public Affairs work, please contact jonny.adamson@basw.co.uk