Statement: Supporting social workers in keeping the promise

This week Fiona Duncan, Independent Strategic Advisor – the promise, will have the first of 32 catch ups in local authority areas across Scotland.

On these visits, she will be meeting with people to whom the promise was made, and those working to keep it. This includes social workers, who Fiona will be listening carefully to, to understand how we can overcome barriers. And, in parallel, Fiona Duncan, Chief Social Work Officer Highland and Convenor of Social Work Scotland, will be working with Scottish Government and Local Government leaders on the specific changes needed.

Ahead of the first catch up, in North Lanarkshire on Friday, they have made a joint statement in support of social workers which highlights the challenges they face:

“For the promise to be kept, social workers need time to build and maintain relationships with children and their families. Time to listen and to understand what really matters. Time to be there for children and families when they need support and guidance, at the earliest opportunity, and for as long as it takes. Time for reflective supervision and professional discussions which underpin good decision making. And to make this possible, they need a system that enables them to act on the basis of their professional ethics, training, and judgement. Social work and social workers are at the heart of supporting and protecting Scotland’s children and young people, and what they have to respond to each and every day, is significant.

“Throughout the Independent Care Review, social workers were clear that they did not have this time; and that the care system was under-resourced and overly bureaucratic, often preventing – rather than enabling – the building of relationships with families, children, and carers. Moral distress and burnout were common experiences, resulting in high levels of sickness absence and staff turnover, which in turn placed more stress on the staff that remained. This is an unacceptable situation for social work to be in, and without change, a situation which would prevent realisation of the promise which Scotland made to families and care experienced people.

“More than six years on from when the promise was made, there has been change for our social workers— but not enough. Plan 24-30 is clear that social workers must be properly resourced to work alongside communities, and that means greater investment in both social workers and community resources (such as family centres, short-breaks, peer-networks). For the promise to be kept by 2030, Scotland needs its social workers to have more time to do the unique and essential job they fulfil in our care system. And that change is needed right now.

“Working together, we hope to shift from rhetoric into action on behalf of social workers across the country, and in doing so, make the promise a reality.”

Fiona Duncan, Chief Social Work Officer Highland Council and Convenor of Social Work Scotland

Fiona Duncan, Independent Strategic Advisor – the promise.