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Education and training
The Scottish Social Services Council is responsible for promoting and developing education and training for the social services workforce in Scotland. It is also responsible for regulating and awarding professional social work qualifications.
Social work degree and postgraduate couses
The SSSC approves social work honours degree and postgraduate courses at universities across Scotland. Click to download the list of approved courses.
You can find out more about a career in social work, social care and early education and child care in the careers section of this website.
Key Capabilities for Child Care and Protection
As part of the quality assurance and quality enhancement processes for the Honours Degree in Social Work, the SSSC will require evidence from universities that Key Capabilities in Child Care and Protection have been embedded at the appropriate level in each year of the degree, from September 2007.
Click here for further information.
Modern Apprenticeships - Health and Social Care and Children's Care, Learning & Development
The SSSC manages the framework for two Modern Apprenticeships in Scotland - these are Health and Social Care and Children's Care, Learning & Development (formerly known as Early Years Care and Education).
Click here for further information
Evaluation of the SSSC approval process of social work courses
In January 2003, a new Framework for Social Work Education was announced and the first four-year honours degree courses in social work began in 2004.
The SSSC approved the new social work degrees using an innovative process to ensure the delivery of high quality professional social work courses. The approval process consisted of a number of elements including: notification of intent, submission of written application, approval event involving SSSC Approval Panel and Course Provider, approval decision and feedback and the appeals procedure.
These processes were aligned with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education’s systems. The approval panel consisted of: SSSC Learning and Development staff, people who use services, their carers, staff from Higher Education Institutions (HEI), and social service provider agencies in the statutory and voluntary sector.
Research carried out by Jennifer Lerpiniere and Andy Kendrick with HEI staff, SSSC staff and panel members aimed to explore perspectives of the approval process and quality objectives, the extent of variation of approval processes and preparedness for the approval process.
The research focused on the process of approval and not the content of courses. A full copy of the research is available from the SSSC at enquiries@sssc.uk.com
Involving service users and carers in the social work degree
The Scottish Government has recently awarded each University in Scotland delivering the Social Work Degree £5,000 as a contribution towards their activities in involving service users and carers in all aspects of the Social Work Degree. This is a requirement of the Standards in Social Work Education, the framework against which the Social Work Degree is approved by SSSC. The grant will be administered by SSSC and the Funding Scheme, setting out the conditions and eligible areas of expenditure can be found below:
Funding Scheme