SASW Statement on the Scottish Government Programme for Government

Our statement on the 2026-2027 PfG by the Scottish Government

SASW welcomes the ambition of the Programme for Government but warns that reform without investment will deepen risks for social workers and the people they support.

Key points

  • Recognition welcomed — Recognition of social work’s importance to the public and, particularly, commitments regarding Justice Social Work’s role in penal reform.  Commitments on public‑health approaches to drugs and alcohol are also positive to see reiterated.
  • Complexity acknowledged — Efforts to simplify Scotland’s fragmented social work and social care landscape align with long‑standing member concerns.
  • Structures won’t fix systemic issues — We stress that governance changes alone cannot address the deep challenges facing service delivery highlighted by Audit Scotland and others.
  • Workforce under strain — The PfG overlooks the reality of shrinking public sector capacity, which is echoed by the SSSC’s warning that social workers’ ability to sustain high‑quality practice is being steadily undermined.

Full statement

We welcome the Scottish Government’s ambition to deliver for the people of Scotland.

Our members will be pleased to see Justice Social Work’s (JSW) central role in prison and penal reform recognised, coupled with promises of increased resources. There is much else which we would support, such as recognising drug and alcohol misuse as a public health issue, ambitions to prevent illness and social crisis occurring, and a recognition that the health and social care landscape is complex and confusing.

Tackling the complexity in the social work and social care system is something our members have supported over a number of years, and which was embraced throughout the recent National Care Service proposals, right up until the end of the process. There is no doubt that large-scale and fundamental reform is needed. We are also supportive of structures that will eliminate unnecessary variations that can cause issues with practice for social workers and confusion amongst supported people. 

We are also pleased to see the new National Social Work Agency and social work profession being referred to, albeit briefly. The work of this new agency through the Scottish Social Work Partnership will be vital to making progress in the months and years ahead.

However, as reflected in our manifesto, in our briefings, and in our work on the NCS proposals over many years, structures alone are unlikely to deliver the changes that are so badly needed. The Audit Scotland report earlier this year on Integration Joint Board (IJB) performance also points to issues far beyond structures that are preventing integration delivering better care and support in Scotland. 

We recently responded to the Scottish Parliament’s consultation on Public Service Reform, which highlighted proposals for a 2.5% reduction in the public sector workforce over the course of this Parliament. In that response, we encouraged the creation of ambitious and forward-thinking reform of services rooted in improving accessibility and resilience to cope with demand. When the overall aim is reducing costs and balancing budgets, that is almost impossible to deliver. The Programme outlined by the First Minister this week fails, in large part, to recognise the environment in which these reforms are situated.

We acknowledge that change is needed, but plans on this scale also carry significant risk. Risk for our members themselves and for people who rely on the vital social work and social care services which they continue to deliver with humility and dedication in increasingly difficult circumstances. We are uneasy about language that suggests the overall ability of systems to cope is down to a matter of governance, rather than resources. Every recent report about the challenges facing social work in Scotland highlights the same issues. Social workers continue to do amazing work, change lives and protect the most vulnerable within our society. They do this despite the environment in which they are asked to operate, not because of it. This has been best summed up by the recent SSSC Wellbeing Survey report, which describes ‘a workforce that continues to show extraordinary commitment, but whose capacity is being steadily undermined,’ in an environment ‘where the conditions required to sustain high quality compassionate practice are increasingly compromised.’ SSSC Wellbeing Survey report, page 6 and page 8.

Our members will keenly await the promised engagement on the details of these proposals over the next 3 months.