Scottish Government responds to Setting the Bar

Since the Setting the Bar report was published, SASW has worked closely with MSPs to challenge Scottish Ministers to address the findings.

The report concluded that ““the values to which social workers are deeply committed to are compromised, with wellbeing impacts, making the job no longer tenable.”

Some findings included:

• 78% said high administrative workload was the least satisfying part of their work, followed by lack of time for preventative work (65%) and high caseloads (47%).
• More than 70% worked additional hours most of the time, of which 90% did not ever get paid for them
• 81% reported that they spent less than 10% of their time on training, learning and development
• 59% highlighted unmanageable workload as a reason for leaving the profession.

SASW’s engagement with MSPs on these worrying findings resulted in 13 parliamentary questions lodged seeking clarification from Ministers on what actions will be taken to improve working conditions for social workers.

The questions focused on recruitment and retention challenges, lack of resources, the impact of poor working conditions on social worker’s mental health and the need to raise the profile of the profession.

The Minister for Mental Health, Clare Haughey has now published responses to those questions. You can read them here.

SASW is determined to keep this issue on the government's radar and press for more immediate and significant improvements. We will discuss the responses with members, partners and MSPs to agree on next steps for this campaign.

We welcome your feedback. Please share any thoughts with our Policy Officer on jonny.adamson@basw.co.uk