Monday, 06 December 2010 11:12

High quality social care - a must, not an option

 

 

High quality social care is a must - not an option, says the Scottish Social Services Council, the body responsible for developing and regulating Scotland's 198,000 social service workers, in its annual report for 2009/10.

 

This life changing work is carried out every day by social service workers in people's homes, at nurseries, community centres, residential homes and throughout our communities.

 

Anna Fowlie, Chief Executive of the SSSC said:

 

"The social service workforce is vital to Scotland's future. As well as caring for the people who need it most, they help people in all of our communities from our youngest to our oldest to live better and more equal lives. The SSSC is committed to driving up the quality of care that the people of Scotland receive from our social services.  This means making sure we have high quality workers in our social work departments, care homes, nurseries and day care services through robust workforce development and planning as well as individual workers achieving high standards of practice.  Our annual report highlights the key role that the SSSC has in providing a trained and trusted workforce and sets out what we aim to achieve in the next year.

 

"There are more challenges to come over the next few years and, in this harsh economic climate, it is more important than ever that investment in and development of the social service workforce remains a priority to make sure we have the skilled and confident workers needed to provide care services for the future."

 

Our achievements in 2009/10 include:  

• the development of the Childhood Practice award for managers in early years services. There are currently 870 students now on the degree level course which aims to provide our children with the best, well led early years services
• implementing Continuous Learning Framework (CLF) for social services. This ground breaking framework is helping organisations and staff to improve in every way. Of the 112 organisations that received support from the SSSC to implement the CLF into their practice in 2009, 36% of these organisations are from the public sector, 28% from the private sector and 36% from the voluntary sector
• making sure people using services know what standards they can expect from their workers. For example, we worked with young Looked After people and their advocacy workers in Dundee and Glasgow to raising awareness of the SSSC Code of Practice for Social Service Workers
• leading the way in developing innovative learning programmes for social service workers using portable games systems that can make vital learning and training for this workforce more cost effective, active, relevant and accessible
• taking action against the small minority of workers who are not suitable to care for our elderly, our children and some of the most vulnerable people in our society (further information in our conduct annual report available here).

 

Read the full SSSC Annual Report and Accounts at: http://www.sssc.uk.com/sssc/about-us/sssc-annual-report.html