It covers Register data from 2024/25 and highlights the unique insights we hold about the registered workforce in our role as regulator. The registered workforce represents 82.6% of the total social service workforce of 212,780 in Scotland.
It’s important to understand more about this workforce to help identify trends, opportunities and challenges for workforce planning, which our data can also influence and support.
The report, which examines data from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, shows there were 175,702 people on the SSSC Register in March 2025, a decrease of 909 or 0.5% on April 2024.
The report covers the period of our Future Proofing Programme which reduced the number of Register parts from 23 to four, reducing the need for workers to hold multiple registrations for different roles and to re-apply to a different part of the Register if they moved jobs.
Insights from our data
SSSC Chief Executive, Maree Allison said: ‘This is our third Register snapshot report, sharing the unique data we hold on the registered workforce.
‘Overall numbers on the Register dropped slightly. There are several factors which can affect Register numbers, like changes in the sector and we’ll monitor this to identify any trends.
‘Being part of a regulated professional workforce means registrants need to be qualified for their role, so it’s positive to see that the workforce is becoming more qualified.
‘The report shows 11,360 people gained the qualifications needed for their roles during 2024/25, meaning more than half of all registrants now hold the relevant qualification.
‘I’m pleased the report shows our Future Proofing Programme simplified our registration processes with a reduction of 26.3% in the number people needing to register on more than one part and a 24% drop in applications.
‘We’ll continue our Register snapshot reports each year to keep on building a picture of this important workforce.’
Key points
The registered workforce covers social work, social care and children and young people services. During 2024/25 most parts of the Register showed a decrease, except for people working in residential childcare services, which had a small increase, as below.
- Our Register decreased by 0.5% from 176,611 to 175,702 between April 2024 and March 2025. -909 (-0.5%)
- The number of people on our Register working in residential childcare services increased from 8,520 in 2024 to 8,760 in 2025. +240 (+2.7%)
- The number of people working in day care of children services on our Register decreased from 45,471 in 2024 to 45,056 in 2025. -415 (-0.9%)
- The number of people on our Register working in care home services for adults fell from 45,024 in 2024 to 44,969 in 2025. -55 (-0.1%)
- The number of people on our Register working in care at home services decreased from 68,587 in 2024 to 67,774 in 2025. -813 (-1.2%)
- The number of social work students on the Register fell for the third consecutive year from 1,943 in 2024 to 1,890 in 2025. -53 (-2.8%)
- The number of registered social workers decreased from 10,925 in 2024 to 10,817 in 2025. -108 (-1.0%)
- The number of people working in residential school care accommodation decreased from 457 in 2024 to 425 in 2025. -32 (-7.5%)
Other points in the report include:
- a 2% increase in the number of people on the Register holding the qualification needed for their role
- 55.3% of registrants hold the relevant qualification for their role
- the average age of registrants is 41 years and seven months, although this differs between Register parts
- the total number of registrations (including people with more than one role) fell from 242,910 to 178,984 (26.3%) as a result of our Future Proofing changes, as we now group roles more broadly.
Read the full report The Scottish Social Services Council Register: 1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025 on our data website.