Social Worker Policy Panel Meeting Summary

The Scottish Government held the second of its policy panel meetings with front-line social workers on Tuesday 5th April.

The monthly online meetings provide a space for all front-line social workers and students across Scotland to engage with the government on the policy-making process for the proposed National Care Service by sharing their views on specific areas of practice and how they could be improved. The National Care Service Bill is expected to be introduced to parliament in June, with a view to establishing the service by the end of the parliamentary term.

The most recent session covered community support and social work, with questions posed to the group on how decisions around eligibility should be made, what is needed to support earlier intervention and ways to improve processes to allow for more person-centred approaches. The questions were as follows:

• What needs to change with social work processes (assessment, support planning, etc.) to allow you to carry out a person centred and relationship based approach to your work?
• How should decisions about ‘eligibility’ be made?
• How can social work support the development of community capacity?
• What is needed in social work to support opportunities for early support/intervention and preventative approaches to be realised?

Discussions focused on the need for more streamlined administrative processes to enable social workers the time to build relationships with people and be more visible within their community and greater integration with other services to improve multi-disciplinary working. The group also highlighted the importance of shifting from a risk-based approach to asset-based practice models and allowing social workers to get involved earlier to prevent difficulties from arising.  A full summary of the meeting will be available shortly. If anyone would like to receive a copy, please email jonny.adamson@basw.co.uk

If you were unable to attend the session but would like to share your feedback with the Scottish Government on the questions that were posed to the group, you can complete our online survey and we will ensure that your views are heard. 

All front-line social workers are invited and encouraged to attend some or all of the upcoming meetings, which take place remotely on the first Tuesday of each month, 1-2:30pm. Please contact Jonny Adamson on jonny.adamson@basw.co.uk to register your interest in being involved.