HELPING OTHERS FOR 20 YEARS
GLASGOW’S health and social care workers are being celebrated for their 20- year commitment to improve the industry by becoming a fully qualified and accountable workforce.
The Regulation of Care ( Scotland) Act 2001 set a vision for a registered and professional social service workforce with codes of practice setting the behaviours and values that every worker must work to.
For the last two decades employees in a wide range of roles; from social workers to day care of children workers and care home workers to residential childcare workers; have had to register with the Scottish Social Services Council ( SSSC).
Staff from various organisations have now been praised for their key role in supporting some of Scotland’s
most vulnerable citizens during and before Covid- 19.
Lorraine Gray, SSSC chief executive, said: “The Covid19 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.
“T h e a spi r a - tion of the or i g i n a l 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.”
One in 13 people are employed to work in Scotland’s social services contributing £ 13.4 billion to the local economy every year. There are more than 160,000 p e ople r e g i s - t e r e d w i t h t h e S S S C working in a range of roles. Ms Gray added: “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.’
“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.”