The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) has published its second Fitness to Practise Snapshot Report, providing key insights into the fitness to practise process and investigations over the past year.

Earlier this year, we told you about our work to review the qualification and modern apprenticeship frameworks. We have made good progress with this project, which will continue over the next two years, and are pleased to be able to provide an update. 

We’ve updated our Decisions Guidance for Fitness to Practise Panels and SSSC staff and also published a range of Practice Notes to provide further guidance on legal issues that can arise during Fitness to Practise Panel hearings. 

We’ve expanded access to our Fitness to Practise Wellbeing Support Line to make sure more people can get the help they need. 

Everyone in the social work, social care and children and young people workforce in Scotland has the right to feel safe at work. Racism and other forms of discriminatory conduct are unacceptable.

Day care of children services was one of the first groups on our Register with required registration coming in almost 20 years ago.

Fitness to Practise Panels play a key role in the fair, independent and transparent regulation of the social work, social care and children and young people workforce. They make decisions on fitness to practise cases in the name of the SSSC but are independent. 

Social service workers, like anybody else, have the right to a safe place of work, free from harassment and from other harmful acts. Unfortunately, as with any other sector, there are cases of inappropriate behaviour in social service workplaces.  

Following the changes to our Register earlier this year, workers now need to apply for registration within three months of starting their role. They still need to be registered within six months as before.  

We get very few fitness to practise referrals for Newly Qualified Social Workers (NQSW), however the introduction of the NQSW Supported Year from this October may influence the kinds of referrals we receive.

We are working with partners across the UK to review the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Health and Social Care and Childcare learning and development.

We’re in the final stages of the Codes of Practice review. Over the past two years, we gathered feedback and ideas from registrants, employers, learning providers, people experiencing care and other key stakeholders.