The Scottish Government funds a number of Centres for Excellence which support the national workforce development strategy to create a competent, confident and skilled workforce, develop innovation and cutting-edge practice based on research and provide information and support to stakeholders in their specific area of expertise.
The Centres for Excellence are:
Citizen Leadership was developed by the User and Carer Forum as part of Changing Lives.
The review of social work services in Scotland.
The Codes of Practice for social services workers and employers
This group of organisations aims to highlight the diverse range of communication support needs and ways of meeting them. The Civic Participation Network promotes awareness of the accessible information and opportunities that people with communication support needs require to take part in the civic life of Scotland. Their website includes the Talk for Scotland toolkit which provides practical tools for engaging with people with communication support needs.
A Framework to support those working in the social care sector.
The aim of the Institute (formerly The Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education, SIESWE) is to:
Develop educational qualifications, professional development pathways and organisational learning cultures that continue to promote positive change in Scotland's social services sector. We are committed to achieving this within an ethos that seeks and utilises the views and participation of service users and carers in all aspects of our work and prioritises collaboration, continuous improvement and quality enhancement.
The Learning Exchange is a digital library of learning resources for social services and social work education and training. The resources include information sheets, official publications, interactive learning resources, video clips, case studies and radio broadcasts, all of which may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes.
Virtually all these resources are freely available using "Open Search"
The Scottish Social Services Learning Network is an innovative project designed to support the learning and development of Scotland's social service workforce. Our purpose is to bring people and resources together to support effective practice. The Network is for the whole social services workforce. Irrespective of occupation or sector, if you're employed in a social service in Scotland we're here to support your learning and development needs.
There are four Regional Learning Networks:
The aim of this initiative is to develop the capacity of the private care sector to deliver on the national workforce agenda through:
The initiative is managed by Scottish Care in partnership with Scottish Care at Home and is funded by Scottish Government.
The SSC is responsible for registering people who work in social services in Scotland and regulating their education and training.
Scottish Voices is made up of groups and networks of people who use social work services or care for someone who does. All of the people in Scottish Voices work with the universities who teach social workers or with the Learning Networks in Scotland. Group members are involved with these organisations because they want to make a difference to social work education at both local and national level.
By working with the universities, service users and carers can positively influence how social workers are trained which in turn should improve the way they do their job.
By working with the Learning Networks, service users and carers can begin to work more closely together and with professionals to help improve how all social services workers do their jobs.
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) was established by Government in 2001 to improve social care services for adults and children in the United Kingdom.
The Social Care Institute for Excellence’s (SCIE) mission is to identify and spread knowledge about good practice to the large and diverse social care workforce and support the delivery of transformed, personalised social care services. It aims to reach and influence practitioners, managers and the sector leadership who have responsibility for service delivery in adults’ and children’s services. SCIE recognises the central role of people who use services, children, young people, their families and their carers, and aims to ensure their experience and expertise is reflected in all aspects of its work.
SCIE is an independent charity, funded by the Department of Health and the devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland. SCIE identifies and disseminates the knowledge base for good practice in all aspects of social care throughout the United Kingdom.
SCIE aims to:
The Workforce Unit seeks to work with all social service providers in the voluntary sector in Scotland to help achieve the Scottish Social Services Council's vision of a "Competent, confident workforce, capable of delivering services in a changing environment and committed to developing a culture of learning."
The Unit has been established by Community Care Providers Scotland (CCPS) in collaboration with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and is funded by the Scottish Government.
The Workforce Development Network brings together people from across the voluntary sector social services workforce to share ideas, knowledge and practice and work together to help influence change.
