New staff joining the social care workforce are to have entry costs paid by the Scottish Government until the end of March.
Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) checks and Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) registration will now be funded to help encourage more staff into the profession and address winter staffing pressures.
The scheme starts today and will include staff taking up direct care posts in adult social care, along with comparable roles in children’s social care services and the justice sector.
It has been introduced following discussions with COSLA and will cover local authority, private and third sectors.
Social care minister Kevin Stewart said: “Care workers have been absolutely critical to our pandemic response, giving vulnerable people the care they need and avoiding further pressure falling on the NHS.
“This trial aims to assist easing winter pressures in this sector by removing any financial barriers that may stop people from applying for a rewarding career in care.
“There are significant pressures in social care due to high vacancy levels and increased demand. I hope this support will encourage those considering joining this vital workforce to go ahead and do so.
“We will continue to work closely with our partners to identify all possible ways we can assist the social care sector to aid recruitment and retention within the workforce at this critical time.”
Basic PVG checks cost £59. SSSC registration costs between £15 and £80 depending on the role.
Wellbeing support for health and social care staff
The Scottish Government is asking what types of wellbeing support health and social care staff need the most from the recent £300 million announcement of a Winter Support Package.
Following the announcement of a further £4 million for workforce wellbeing, health boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships are being invited to identify the services which would most assist their staff.
The £4 million comes on top of £8 million already provided through the NHS Recovery Plan, which will support the ongoing development of a National Wellbeing Programme – including a dedicated hub and helpline, confidential mental health treatment through the Workforce Specialist Service along with time and training for staff to support each other.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “As part of the £300 million package of support for health and social care this winter, we’re bolstering staff wellbeing with an extra £4 million to look after our most valuable asset – the people who provide the care we need through this pandemic.
“We have engaged with health and social care staff around the country, to find out what they need most and how we can help them to get through the toughest winter they’ve ever faced.
“Funding will be immediately available for hot drinks, food and other measures to aid rest and recuperation based on what staff told us they needed. We are also continuing to engage with the workforce to understand what else would help them, with the possibility of developing more psychological support measures.”
Acting Director of Development and Innovation, Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) Laura Lamb said: “The SSSC welcomes the announcement of additional funding to support the wellbeing of frontline workers across social care, social work and health care.
“The workforce continues to deliver high quality person-centred care despite facing significant challenges. They have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic. It is vital the workforce feel valued, cared for and are recognised for the life changing work they do.
“Never before has support for the workforce been so important. Ongoing wellbeing support is essential if we are to have sustainable workforce for the future.”
Director of Workforce at NHS 24 Jacqui Hepburn said: “Over the last 18 months in particular, staff have faced unprecedented challenges and pressures, both professionally and personally, but have continued to rise to these challenges every day, while delivering vital and safe patient-centred care.
“Supporting the mental wellbeing of our workforce, as well as the physical, has always been a priority for NHS 24. To reflect the additional pressures during the pandemic, we established a dedicated online wellbeing zone which provides information, support and tips including financial advice, bereavement support, coping and self-care advice as well as a mindfulness section with access to Spotify playlists, podcasts and access to free apps.
“Bespoke wellbeing areas were also introduced in centres giving staff access to a quiet and safe space to pause and reflect. Hot drinks vending machines were changed to ‘free’ and we provided food and snacks and Wellbeing Box so to support the health of staff over winter.
“We continuously strive for new ways of supporting our amazing and hardworking team at NHS 24 and welcome this additional funding.”
The Wellbeing Hub has been used over 125,000 times since its launch in May 2020.
Social service workers and the key role they have played in supporting some of Scotland’s most vulnerable citizens during COVID-19 have quite rightly been recognised as a vital part of the health and social care system.
Their prominence and recognition come at the same time as a significant milestone is reached in the regulation of social service workers, marking a 20-year journey towards a trusted, qualified and safe workforce.
Lorraine Gray, SSSC Chief Executive said: ‘The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the social care, social work and early years workforce into the public eye and shown that they are a professional, qualified and skilled workforce with parity alongside other similar roles, such as health.
‘The aspiration of the original legislation passed almost 20 years ago to protect people who use social services is coming to fruition with people in social care and early years joining social work to create a fully qualified, accountable workforce.
‘The stories we’ve heard from the sector about how they’ve coped in the most challenging circumstances are just awe inspiring and it’s these individuals who have helped services to continue delivering high quality care to the people who need it most.
‘What comes through most of all are the values and compassion of workers, many of whom could never imagine doing anything else, such is their commitment and dedication.
‘The Scottish Government’s independent review of adult social care is an opportunity to acknowledge those workers, giving them not only the recognition they deserve for the life changing work they do but also the opportunity to change the way society values their role.
‘Adult social care alone contributes more than £13bn each year to the Scottish economy, which is more than agriculture, forestry and fishing, so the economic importance of social services shouldn’t be overlooked either.’
Regulation of Care
The Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 set a vision for a registered, qualified and professional social service workforce with Codes of Practice setting the behaviours and values every worker must work to.
It meant social service workers in a wide range of roles; from social workers to day care of children workers and care home workers to residential childcare workers; have to register with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).
SSSC registration requires workers to hold, or be working towards, a relevant qualification for their role and work to the SSSC Codes of Practice.
A trusted, skilled and confident workforce
One in 13 people employed in Scotland work in social services.
The adult social care sector contributes £13.4bn a year to the economy.
The last group of workers the SSSC Register opened to was support workers in care at home and housing support in October 2017. Some 61,920 of them were registered by the deadline of 30 September 2020.
There are 166,282 people on the SSSC Register working in a range of roles.
This represents 80% of the total social service workforce in Scotland, as not all roles require to register, for example directly employed personal assistants.
Over the past three months Scottish Social Services Council has shared Inspiring Care Stories during COVID-19 and lockdown from social service workers right across Scotland and today publish the final phase.
Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) Chief Executive, Lorraine Gray, thanked everyone who shared their story and the entire social service workforce for the tremendous work they have done, and continue to do, to support people receiving care.
She said: ‘We’ve been overwhelmed by the number of people who wanted to share their stories with us and the lengths workers have gone to so they could continue delivering the best quality of care in the most difficult circumstances.
‘Every one of the stories reflects the knowledge, skills and values of the social service workforce, who don’t always get the recognition they deserve for the vital role they play in our communities.
‘Their dedication to their role and the people they support is clear and for many it really is life changing work and a vocation they excel in.
‘We’re privileged to share these stories and hope everyone has enjoyed reading them as much as we have.
‘Sharing Inspiring Care Stories is just the start for the social service workforce as the COVID-19 pandemic and the forthcoming review of adult social care are rightly shining a light on this trusted, skilled and confident workforce and the vital work they do.’
The final stories published today include some from:
Glasgow
Shetland
Edinburgh
North Ayrshire
Aberdeen
Renfrewshire
Highland
Moray
Fife
Borders.
The stories are the final phase from those SSSC have gathered. All the stories published can be found in the online Inspiring Care Stories resource: www.sssc.uk.com/inspiringcarestories
Share your story to get involved
You can still get involved by sharing your Inspiring Care Stories on social media using the hashtags #lifechangingwork and #SSSCregistered.
Services and care workers can add to the stories by:
sharing a photo, video or a post on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
using the hashtags #lifechangingwork and #SSSCregistered
… and one in ten social care workers are migrants making a vital contribution
The new immigration system being proposed by the UK Government would leave Scotland’s vital social care sector critically short of staff, according to a new report. It would also damage a number of other important sectors in Scotland.
The Scottish Government’s response to the Migration Advisory Committee’s call for evidence on the UK Shortage Occupation List (SOL) highlights that the social work and residential care sectors are heavily reliant on migrants, with almost 10% of roles filled by workers from outside the UK – the majority of whom would not qualify for a visa under the so-called ‘skilled worker’ route currently being proposed by the UK Government.
Ben Macpherson, Minister for Public Finance and Migration said the remarkable contribution of non-UK citizens working in health and social care, and other sectors, has been brought into especially sharp focus during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.
He said social care roles must now be added to the SOL, in order to prevent a labour shortage in this crucial sector.
The response shows 29,300 non-UK nationals work in health and social care.
Mr Macpherson said: “Care professionals from all over the world have played a vital role in caring for our communities during the COVID-19 crisis.
“It is mind-boggling that the UK Government has introduced a ‘Health and Care visa’, intended to show the UK’s gratitude to frontline workers in these sectors, but that this initiative bizarrely continues to exclude and disregard the huge contribution of social care workers.
“I urge the UK Government to do the right thing and include care workers as eligible for the recently announced ‘Health and Care visa’, so that people who make and have made such an important contribution to our society, particularly recently, can benefit from reduced fees, a fast-track application service, and exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge.
“This report, responding to the Migration Advisory Committee’s call for evidence on the UK Shortage Occupation List (SOL), shows how the UK Government’s ending of freedom of movement, and no replacement general route for what they have wrongly and offensively deemed ‘lower-skilled’ migrants, will be damaging to social care provision and key Scottish sectors of the Scottish economy.
“Adding social care roles to the SOL would allow employers to recruit international workers at a lower salary threshold of £20,480, instead of the proposed £25,600.
“The Scottish Government is clear – we greatly value the skills and contributions of all people who come and settle in Scotland. Inward migration enriches our society for the better and migrants make a net contribution to our economy, our public services and our public finances. Family migration also contributes positively to our demography, and the sustainability of rural and remote communities.”
Read SG response to Migration Advisory Committee on review of Shortage Occupation List 2020
A new report published by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) shows that more people than ever before work in Scotland’s social services. There are some 206,400 people in the workforce, which makes up approximately 7.8% of all Scottish employment or one in 13 jobs.
The figures are revealed in the Scottish Social Service Sector: Report on 2019 Workforce Data.
The report highlights the size and importance of the social service workforce, which has played a vital role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lorraine Gray, SSSC Chief Executive said: ‘The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have brought Scotland’s social service workers to the fore and this report shows the size and breadth of the sector.
‘They play a vital role in protecting and supporting some of society’s most vulnerable citizens and represent one in 13 of all employment in Scotland, so make a significant contribution to the economy too.
‘As well as being skilled and qualified roles, people must also bring the right values and we can see from the report that this is a committed workforce with just over three quarters in the same post as the previous year.
‘One of the largest increases this year was in the day care of children sub-sector, with an extra 2,360 workers, as recruitment continues towards the expansion of free early learning and childcare. Although COVID-19 has delayed this deadline we expect increased recruitment to day care of children’s service to continue.’
Key points from this year’s workforce data report
The size of the workforce has increased to 206,400, a rise of 0.8% since 2018. This is the highest level recorded since these reports began. The social service workforce makes up approximately 7.8% of all Scottish employment.This increase has been driven mainly by increases to the day care of children sub-sector and with public provision. The whole time equivalent (WTE) measure of the workforce is 155,330, an increase of 1.3% since 2018. The stability index of the workforce is 76.8%. This means just over three-quarters of the workforce remained in the same post since last year. The largest employer type differs between local authority areas, with services in Orkney, Shetland and Na h-Eileanan Siar (the three island authorities) provided mainly by the public sector. However, in most areas the private sector is the largest employer. The three largest sub-sectors are housing support/care at home, care homes for adults and day care of children; together these account for almost 78% of the workforce. The median age of the workforce is highest in the public sector (47) and lowest in the private sector (41). Early years workers in the private sector have the lowest median age (28). The percentage of men working in the sector is 15%, although it is around double or greater that proportion in criminal justice and residential children’s services. The workforce is mainly employed on permanent contracts (82%). The median figure for the typical weekly hours worked by staff is 32 and 51% of the workforce work full time (more than 30 hours per week).
The report combines administrative data collected by the Care Inspectorate with data collected by the SSSC directly from local authorities to form a comprehensive picture of the paid workforce employed in the social service sector in Scotland at the end of 2019.
Scottish Social Services Council has collected stories from all types of social services across the whole of Scotland which show how the workforce has often gone above and beyond to support people receiving care.
The stories demonstrate the values, compassion and professionalism of social service workers.
Over 60 stories have been gathered from all types of social services across the whole country and some of those wonderful stories in the new online Inspiring Care Stories resource.
The stories are organised in the six core themes of our Involving People Plan although most link to more than one theme.
More stories will be added over the coming weeks and encourage you to share your own stories on social media using the hashtags #InspiringCareStories #lifechangingwork and #SSSCregistered.
The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) successfully delivered its major digital transformation programme in 2018/2019. This included several new and upgraded systems alongside new IT equipment during 2019, at the same time as a 35% increase in applications to the Register as the 2020 date for mandatory registration of support workers in care at home and housing support services approaches.
These are just two of the highlights from the 2018/19 Annual Report and Accounts published yesterday.
