Independent Review of Adult Social Care - SASW Position Statement

Read the position statement including key messages for the Independent Review

 Our key messages for the Independent Review

  1. SASW members want change to the social care and social work systems.  The status quo is not working for people who use services or for the people who work alongside them.
  2. The social work profession is a single profession, very connected to, but separate from, social care. It holds specific duties for welfare and statutory powers to intervene where necessary.  
  3. Until social care is funded effectively, with enough resource coming through transparent resource allocation systems, both radical change and incremental improvement cannot achieve the results we all hope for.  To improve unacceptable variation in what is delivered across Scotland, the budget system from national to local government needs significant reconsideration.  The link to poverty also cannot be ignored.  Poverty directly affects the requirement for state support and intervention when people struggle with life challenges.
  4. Any new system must promote the professional autonomy of the workforce to use their professional judgement and make appropriate resource decisions.  Our self-directed support system is an excellent starting place and should be further developed. 
  5.  The social services workforce should be treated nationally as equivalent in status, pay and conditions to their colleagues in the health system. Good conditions of service must be an entitlement across the public and independent sectors.  Without this, social care and social work voices are lost in a system that is currently dominated by health discourse and the medicalisation and individualisation of social problems.
  6. Different elements of the social services arena (resource management, policy implementation, professional development, direct delivery) will need differentiate treatment in terms of national or local infrastructure.
  7. A whole systems approach to change will be needed.  The current system is connected formally and informally through individuals, organisations, culture and traditions that need care and thought to dismantle or re-arrange.  Real change can only come with sufficient attention to the needs of the workforce, the capacity of the leadership and sufficient knowledge of local assets and needs to shape and support what will be a multi-faceted, hugely impactful change.