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Loading …Social work assistants would be regulated in Scotland under plans issued for consultation.
Regulator the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is also consulting on adding adult day centre supervisors, practitioners and support workers, and offender accommodation managers, supervisors and practitioners to its register.
The SSSC currently regulates about 176,500 of the approximately 213,000 people working in the sector in Scotland, including social workers, social work students, children’s and adults’ residential care staff, day care workers in children’s services and adult home care workers.
The proposed new groups would add about 7,400 to this total, including 2,800 social work assistants.
The social work assistant role
The role, which is not regulated anywhere in the UK currently, involves supporting “the co-ordination and management of cases and [supporting] social workers to carry out statutory responsibility within their role”.
The SSSC said that social work assistants may contribute to assessments of needs, risk assessments, care plans and developing and sustaining relationships with individuals, however, this would always be under the direct guidance of a social worker and a supervising manager.
Under the plans to regulate the role, social work assistants would need to hold both an academic and a practice qualification.
Proposed qualification requirements
The academic qualification would either be the higher national certificate in social services or the award of at least 96 credits under level 7 of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF).
The proposed practice qualification would be the Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) social services (children and young people) or the SVQ social services and healthcare course, at SCQF level 7.
Because they would need to gain two qualifications, they would be given five years to complete these, from the point of registration.
The SSSC said it had found that many social work assistants already had a relevant qualification, though added that the need to complete both may cause additional pressure for those without any.
Like other SSSC registrants, social work assistants would need to carry out continuous professional learning (CPL) annually.
The regulator has proposed an annual registration fee of £35 for the group, compared with the £80 charge currently in place for social workers, though the latter will rise to £88 in April and then by a further £8 a year until 2029-30, when it will be £120.
Variation in assistants’ pay and conditions
The SSSC said its scoping work had indicated there was “a large degree of variation in the conditions and pay across social work assistant roles”.
“Setting the qualification requirements at a level that accurately reflects the roles they are required for will assist in demonstrating the complexity of the roles, that the workforce is highly skilled and help to support the professional identity of the role,” it added.
The proposed extension of the register was initiated, in 2023, by the Scottish Government, which then asked the SSSC to scope out the case for regulating roles including social work assistants, adult day centre workers and offender management staff.
The Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW) welcomed the consultation but raised concerns about the impact on social workers.
“Regulation provides assurance to the public and other professionals that services are being delivered by competent and qualified people,” said national director Alison Bavidge.
“However, we need to be careful that decisions taken do not reduce these important job roles simply in to task defined functions.
Concerns about impact on social work role
“All of these roles carry a duty to support people to exercise their human rights, particularly choice and control. They are intimately connected to the role of the social worker and there is a risk that by defining what these roles do, we define preventative support and early intervention for individuals, families and communities out of the social work role.
“If social workers are left with only the crisis and statutory intervention tasks, this will increase social worker burnout rates and make the current retention and recruitment crisis even worse.”
The consultation runs until 9 April 2025, and you can respond by filling out this survey.
