Scottish Social Services Workforce Data
Workforce Skills Report 2021
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06
Oct
2021
The Workforce Skills Report 2021 looks at the current provision of qualifications for the social work, social care and early years workforce, demand for qualifications and how they meet current skills needs. It also looks at barriers to undertaking qualifications and what new skills are needed for the future.
All workers registered with the SSSC must hold, or be working towards, a qualification suitable for their role. If they don’t already hold one, they are registered with a condition to gain it, usually within five years.
The new report highlights that between 2021 and 2025 more than 68,000 registered workers in care homes for adults, care at home and housing support services need to meet a qualification condition. Most of these are met by the SVQ Social Services and Healthcare (SSH) at SCQF level 6, however based on recent average provision around 25,000 people will be able to start the award over the next four years. This gap between demand and supply is the biggest identified in the report
Lorraine Gray, SSSC Chief Executive, said: ‘This report highlights challenges in terms of supply and demand for qualifications but also opportunities, for example considering if the qualifications required for registration need to change.
‘On the whole, the report shows that current qualifications are fit for purpose and equip workers with the necessary skills for their jobs. It also highlights new skills which are coming to the fore including digital skills, trauma informed practice and infection prevention and control.
‘We look forward to working with employers, learning providers and other key partners to develop an action plan to address the skills challenges identified in the report.’
Download Workforce Skills Report 2021 - Executive Summary(PDF, 2047KB)
Download Workforce Skills Report 2021 - (PDF, 970KB)
You can download the tables from the report in either Microsoft Excel (XSLX), Open Document Spreadsheet (ODS) or comma-separated values (CSV) format here.
| Description | File type | File size (KB) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All tables & charts (Excel) | .xlsx | 48 | Download | |
| All tables & charts (Open document) | .ods | 20 | Download | |
| All tables (compressed files CSV) | .zip | 8.5 | Download | |
| 1 | No. of qualification conditions ending for adult social care registrants’ each year by the benchmark qualification 2021-25 | .csv | 1.7 | Download |
| 2 | Care and managerial staff, residents in care homes for adults | .csv | 0.9 | Download |
| 3 | Care and managerial staff in care at home and housing support, service users and hours of care provided 2016-20 | .csv | 0.7 | Download |
| 4 | No. of qualification conditions due to be met by children’s services registrants by the benchmark qualification 2021-25 | .csv | 0.4 | Download |
| 5 | Care and managerial staff working in day care of children services | .csv | 0.4 | Download |
| 6 | Care and managerial staff working in residential child care services | .csv | 0.5 | Download |
| 7 | Local authority practising social workers 2016-2021– headcount, WTE, WTE as percentage of headcount and WTE per thousand population | .csv | 0.4 | Download |
| 8 | Table 8: No. of starts by year (2016-21) and qualification | .csv | 0.4 | Download |
| 9 | No. of certifications by year and qualification | .csv | 0.4 | Download |
| 10 | No. of starts for relevant children’s qualifications 2016-21 | .csv | 0.7 | Download |
| 11 | No. of certifications for relevant children’s qualifications 2016-21 | .csv | 0.9 | Download |
| 12 | Admissions and successful completions social work training courses 2015-20 | .csv | 0.4 | Download |
| 13 | Average number of starts 2016-20 by qualification | .csv | 0.4 | Download |
| 14 | Average number of starts 2016-20 by qualification | .csv | 0.4 | Download |
| Appendix 1 | Number of registrations on 1 April 2021 by category and percentage with a qualification condition plus date mandatory registration began | .csv | 0.2 | Download |
|
Appendix 2.1 |
SSSC registration categories – qualification types required and benchmark qualification code (qualification codes in brackets refer to alternative benchmark qualifications) | .csv | 0.3 | Download |
| A2.2 | Benchmark qualifications and codes | .csv | 0.4 | Download |
| A4.1 | Service types by SSSC registration categories | .csv | 0.8 | Download |
| A4.2 | Numbers of services, services surveyed, responses received and response rate | .csv | 0.6 | Download |
