Recruitment and retention

Scotland in 2024

There are major challenges in recruiting and retaining staff needed to support children, young people, families, and care-experienced adults. The workforce crisis makes resourcing efforts to #KeepThePromise difficult, worsened by financial constraints, the impact of COVID-19, and the cost of living. Organisations are offering training, mental health support, and staff-focused policies, but these don’t address the core issue of an overstretched workforce and systemic barriers like poor IT systems and recruitment difficulties.

A stable, well-supported workforce is essential to properly care for and build relationships with those in need.

Where does Scotland need to be by 2030?

By 2030, Scotland will have established a new way of thinking about the workforce, from definition, learning and training and recruitment through to supervision and retention (Pg 96). Measures will be in place to support and enhance recruitment and retention of those who care for Scotland’s children.

This means that:

Workforce

There will be enough skilled and confident members of the unpaid and paid workforce to meet the needs of Scotland’s children, families and care experienced adults. (Pg 103).
The ability of the workforce to act with care and compassion will be prioritised and they will be supported to develop the space within which loving care and nurturing relationships can develop (Pg 103).
Anyone working alongside children, families and care experienced adults, including midwives, health visitors, family support workers and social workers, will be well resourced and supported and have sufficient capacity to care in the way the promise demands (Pg 48).
Employment conditions will allow people involved in the care of children to flourish and feel valued. (Pg 101).
The number and quality of kinship, foster carers, adopters and other carers available to meet the needs of sibling groups will exceed the needs of the children experiencing the ‘care system’ (Pg 62).
The workforce, including foster carers, will be recruited on the basis of their values (Pg 77/ 79).

These statements and the page numbers referenced are taken from the promise report, published when the Independent Care Review concluded in 2020.

The route map to get there

The focus must be on Scotland’s care workforce crisis. There aren’t enough staff to provide care, let alone drive reform. To make progress, efforts must first reduce the impact of this crisis and work towards a solution.

Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)

A joint working group with COSLA has been established to address immediate issues affecting the workforce, in line with recommendation 1.5 in ‘Hearings for Children’. A joint Workforce Improvement Plan is also being developed.

Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection (CELCIS)

The Scottish Government reviewed CELCIS’s research about the future delivery of children’s services and developed a programme of improvement activity, which will included action to address workforce challenges set out in the fourth research report. "Five criteria from Part 3 of the Guidance were fully achieved by less than half of the CSPs, and were consequently identified as areas for development across the Plans.

Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)

The (SSSC) introduced return to practice requirements for social workers, which will create a pathway for social workers who have been out of social work practice and off the SSSC register for more than two years to return to work. Work includes the creation of an Advanced Social Work Practice by the SSSC to support social workers at different career stages, offering a blend of academic, learning, development, and work-based opportunities.

In 2024 and throughout 2025 and 2026, the Scottish Government will continue to lead work together with stakeholders to prepare for the implementation of all aspects of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024. This will include significant work with Children’s Hearings Scotland to ensure that there are a sufficient number of fully trained and skilled Panel Members to uphold children’s rights as the provisions in the Act relating to the Children’s Hearings commence.

There is expected to be a Scottish Government consultation on a national, strategic approach to foster care. That is include consideration of the recruitment and retention of foster carers.

National Occupational Standards (NOS)

The review of the NOS, which underpin all qualifications accepted by the SSSC, will be complete. This review will consider children’s views and identify current skills gaps, revise language, and strengthen elements of the current qualifications to meet ambitions in the promise.

May: The Scottish Government increased bursaries available for postgraduate social work students in the 2025/26 academic year by almost 50% on average

National Occupational Standards (NOS)

The findings of the (NOS) review must be considered and embedded.

The actions outlined in the Voice foundation are fully embedded at every stage to progress actions on Recruitment and retention.

Activity does not focus solely on social work and care workforces. Consideration must be given to how the capacity and development of the wider workforce is maintained.

*Routemap last updated May 2025

What is helping?

In 2022, the Scottish Government published its National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland which sets out a national framework to achieve its vision of a sustainable, skilled workforce with attractive career choices where all are respected and valued for the work they do.

Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)

In 2023 the SSSC and Care Inspectorate published Safer Recruitment Through Better Recruitment, which has sections on promoting care experience and links to support and advice throughout. The Scottish Government has acknowledged the significant pressures that social care and social work workforces continue to face, and has stated that it is committed to taking immediate action to address some of the challenges.

Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection (CELCIS)

CELCIS was commissioned by the Scottish Government in June 2022 to carry out independent research to help inform the future of the delivery of children’s services. CELCIS published their fourth research report in November, in which members of the children’s services workforce highlight opportunities, challenges and barriers within the services in which they operate.