The SSSC have produced reports on demand for social workers every two years since 2012.

We have published the Demand For Social Workers report. 

This report examines data from a range of sources on the supply and demand for social workers in Scotland. It begins with admissions and completions from social work training courses and looks at the numbers who then register with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) as newly qualified social workers (NQSWs). It then considers the total number on the Register and the numbers employed as practising social workers (PSWs) by local authorities. Sections 4 and 5 consider drivers of demand and projected numbers of social workers required in the future. The final section provides some conclusions and suggestions for action.

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Part two of the National Workforce Plan for Health and Social Care sets out current and future workforce challenges and identifies several recommendations.

We are leading work to identify how to improve career opportunities along with relevant training and education to support the workforce.

This data analysis is a longitudinal piece of work and we intend to expand our collaborative and explorative approach with the sector to enhance the process and ultimately the usefulness of the findings.

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Exploring education and training to improve our understanding of social service career pathways focuses on education and training in the sector as it plays a role in supporting entry and progression.

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The 2017-2018 report provides SVQ provision data separately for social services and healthcare (primarily Adult services) and Children and Young People frameworks as well as the proportion of SVQ activity made up by Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) in Scotland.

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The economic Value report on adult social care was published in 2018 and can be found here on the SSSC workforce data website.

The partners in Skills for Care & Development who commissioned the research into the economic value of adult social care agreed to commission an Addendum to the report to explore some of the unanswered questions raised in the main reports.

The main aims for this additional research were:

■ Provide a breakdown of the economic value of the adult social care sector using the expenditure approach by type of service provider (public, private and voluntary);

■ Describe the reasons for the higher economic value in Scotland (per capita) than the other UK nations;

■ Disaggregate the indirect and induced economic impacts by type of service; and

■ Illustrate how the economic value of the adult social care sector (using the income approach) could vary as a result of changes to employee earnings.

You can download the Addendum here:

Download (PDF, 470kB)

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