SSSC Interim Chief Executive, Maree Allison said:
‘These two reports demonstrate our commitment to and our pride in our role as a corporate parent and the key part we play in keeping the Promise. The action plan sets out how we will achieve our goal to put care experience and children’s rights at the heart of our work.
‘We recognise the continued effort required to put this into practice on our part and that of all public bodies and the activities set out in our action plan with clear objectives and timelines, demonstrate our unwavering focus on delivering this goal.’
Both reports highlight how we have revised the Codes of Practice for Social Service Workers and Employers, a key part of our commitment to keep the Promise. The revised Codes address many of the points identified during the consultation process such as a need for the language to be clearer, more engaging and easier to relate to for encouraging good practice. The Codes have a focus on kindness, trauma informed practice and relationship-based practice and they are aligned to the Health and Social Care Standards.
An example featured in the Care Experience Report is the data we publish on vacancies in services and key policies. In 2022 and 2023 we published a report examining 10 years of residential childcare workforce data and a report on the movement of the day care of children workforce. These reports provide critical information on the profile of the workforce and inform the expansion of funded early learning and childcare.
We also published new guidance on safer recruitment in October 2023 with the Care Inspectorate. This highlights the way people with care experience suffer stigma and the need for employers to take a trauma informed approach.
And we have introduced new requirements for registrants’ continuous professional learning (CPL). Our approach sets out core learning elements and suggested learning topics. Subjects such as child protection, adult protection and trauma informed practice will be mandatory requirements for all register groups.
We continue to raise our employees’ awareness of care experience and children’s rights in many ways including presentations and staff conference sessions with the Promise, Who Cares? Scotland and Each and Every Child.
The reports set out our planned activities from now until 2026. These include:
- leading work to refresh the Common Core of skills, knowledge and understanding and values for the children’s workforce in Scotland as part of our commitment to The Promise’s Change Programme ONE
- carrying out an internal review of our readiness for the Incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024
- supporting our staff to become trauma informed and exploring how we can improve our building and our policies.
