Maree Allison, SSSC Chief Executive said:
'This has been a year of real progress as we've delivered major changes to support Scotland's social service workforce and the people who rely on their vital services.
‘As part of our commitment to keeping the promise we worked closely with The Promise Scotland to revise our Codes of Practice for Workers and Employers to make sure they embody and support the ethos of kind and compassionate care that respects the rights of individuals.
'We successfully launched improvements from our Future Proofing Programme, that are transforming how we work. We've simplified registration, introduced a new approach to continuous professional learning, and made it easier for workers to move between roles. These changes make being registered more straightforward while strengthening public protection.
We've worked closely with partners to improve induction, career pathways and workforce planning. We've listened to the workforce through surveys and used their insights to guide our work. As Scotland's official statistics provider for the sector, we've published reports to support better workforce planning across social work, social care and children and young people services.
'Looking ahead, we're focused on building a trusted, confident, skilled and valued workforce that delivers the best outcomes for people across Scotland.'
Highlights from our 2024-25 Annual Report:
- The social service sector employs approximately 212,780 workers, representing around 8.1% of all employment in Scotland – the highest figure since we began publishing this data in 2008.
- We launched revised Codes of Practice for Workers and Employers in May 2024 and introduced new continuous professional learning requirements in June 2024, with over 80% of the workforce reporting positively on the resources we promote.
- As at year end we had approximately 176,000 people in the workforce on our Register and we successfully moved 178,000 individual workers from the previous 23-part Register structure to a new four-part structure in June 2024.
- We introduced the mandatory supported first year in practice for Newly Qualified Social Workers in October 2024, running supportive events across the sector for practitioners, managers, supervisors and peer mentors.
- We launched our National Stakeholder Advisory Forum, building on successful stakeholder involvement in our Future Proofing Programme to help shape our services.
- We developed new resources and partnerships including a Social Care Career Options tool, the National Induction Framework for workers in adult social care and a guide for employers on recruiting 16 and 17-year-olds.