The proposed new groups are:
• adult day care service - support worker, practitioner and supervisor
• offender accommodation service – practitioner, supervisor and manager
• social work assistant.
Overview of the response
Thank you to everyone who responded to our consultation which ran for 10 weeks from January 2025 until April 2025.
We asked your views on:
• the role descriptions that set out what people in these roles do
• the qualifications relevant for the role
• the fee levels for each role
• the continuous professional learning (CPL) requirements which set what continuous learning is needed for each role.
The consultation results show strong support for the expansion of the Register with over 80% of respondents agreeing that we should include these new groups.
The consultation reported high levels of agreement for all the proposals across adult day care services and offender accommodation (justice) services. While there was strong support for registering social work assistants, views on the proposed job role and function for this group were mixed.
| Adult day care service | |||
| Support Worker | Practitioner | Supervisor | |
| % agree should be registered | 88% | 91% | 91% |
| % agree with job role and function | 87% | 88% | 91% |
| % agree with qualification requirement | 77% | 86% | 90% |
| % agree with CPL requirement | 84% | 88% | 92% |
| % agree with proposed fee | 67% | 70% | 79% |
| Offender accommodation service | |||
| Support Worker | Practitioner | Supervisor | |
| % agree should be registered | 91% | 94% | 92% |
| % agree with job role and function | 85% | 89% | 89% |
| % agree with qualification requirement | 88% | 89% | 87% |
| % agree with CPL requirement | 91% | 91% | 87% |
| % agree with proposed fee | 83% | 82% | 74% |
| Social work Assistants | |
| SWA | |
| % agree should be registered | 80% |
| % agree with job role and function | 51% (role) - 57% (function) |
| % agree with qualification requirement | 70% |
| % agree with CPL requirement | 87% |
| % agree with proposed fee | 65% |
You can find out more about the proposals for each new group here.
SSSC Council approval
The SSSC Council reviewed the consultation results and decided what to recommend to the Scottish Government at their May 2025 meeting.
The Council approved the proposed role descriptions, qualification requirements, CPL needs and registration fees for the proposed new groups, except for the role of social work assistants.
They said that if Scottish Ministers choose to register social work assistants, their role and responsibilities will need to be more clearly defined. You can find more information about the consultation results in agenda item 11 (Report no:18/2025) of the Council papers on our website: Council Meeting of 22 May 2025.
What happens next?
We’ve shared the consultation findings and our recommendations with the Scottish Government. If Scottish Ministers decide to add the new groups to the Register, we’ll work with the Scottish Government to agree a timeline for making it happen. This would include registering the new groups in stages.
We’ll let you know more once the timeline is confirmed. You can keep up to date with news on expanding the Register by subscribing to our newsletter: https://www.sssc.uk.com/sign-up-for-our-newsletters/