Clare Haughey MSP, Minister for Mental Health has written to health and social care staff with information and resources to help look after their mental health and wellbeing while dealing with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

With the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic across the country, it will be necessary for health and social care staff to be deployed to work in frontline care services they may be unfamiliar with. Temporary workers and volunteers are also being recruited to support services.

The UK and Scottish coronavirus legislation include some important changes for social service regulation so we can support the workforce to keep on delivering high quality services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We’ve been receiving lots of enquiries from workers and employers. Our FAQs answer some of the most common ones. We’ll keep this information up to date as new guidance and information is available. (last update 11 November 2020, updated guidance for SVQ assessment centres)

We recognise that the social service sector is on the frontline of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and we want to support you to continue to deliver your vital work during this challenging time. As you need to change your services to meet demand, we’ve agreed regulatory changes with Scottish Government to enable an effective response by services. These are effective from today (18 March 2020).

Our Chief Executive Lorraine Gray has a message of support for social service workers dealing with the current pandemic.

National guidance and advice for the sector is available so we've pulled some of the key links together to help you. This guidance is being constantly updated so please check it regularly. 

Another 98 Dementia Champions and 45 Dementia Specialist Improvement Leads (DSIL) will graduate today from specialist dementia training programmes aimed at improving the care and support for people living with dementia in Scottish hospitals, care homes and community settings.

The SSSC Register opened to its biggest group of workers, support workers in care at home and housing support, just over two years ago. Head of Registration Cheryl Campbell updates us on progress.

We understand that as health and care professionals you may be feeling anxious about Novel coronavirus (COVID-19). 

We've published new resources for you to use to compare social service workforce data between local authority areas for benchmarking and understanding the differences across Scotland.

The Scottish Government and COSLA have published the Health and social care: integrated workforce plan, which is the UK’s first to help create sustainable health and social care services.