3. Please provide a summary of the evidence gathered which will be used to inform your decision-making and the content of the proposal.

To inform this CRWIA and, in wider terms, the development of the NSWA, officials have taken a wide range of reports, research documents and policy expertise into account. Many of these are listed below with information on how they link to, or will inform, development of the proposed NSWA.

Evidence from existing research/reports/policy expertise:

Workforce data

Social worker data published bi-annually by the SSSC shows that while numbers of practising social workers have increased, this is still overtaken by the rate at which demand for their services has increased in parallel. The latest workforce report⁵ from the SSSC (October 2025) documented a 4.6% growth in headcount in local authority social work from the previous year. This may, however, be driven by an unusually high headcount being reported by Edinburgh City Council. Children’s fieldwork services grew by 2.5% since 2023. 

The latest vacancy report from the SSSC (December 2025) shows a 1.2% decrease in social workers from December 2024. The WTE of main grade social workers did increase slightly to 0.3%; whilst the WTE of senior social workers decreased by 6.6%. The overall vacancy rate for social workers in June 2025 was 8.9%. For children’s services, the vacancy rates were 11.3% for main grade social workers and 6.4% for senior social workers.⁶

Recent Chief Social Work Officer reports have documented acute shortages in the workforce, low morale and excessive workloads experienced by staff. There has been a notable risk in demand and complexity of work, including in child protection services.⁷  Other research reports, such as Setting the Bar, have also documented unmanageable workloads and recruitment and retention challenges.⁸

One of the trends affecting the children’s social work workforce is the rate of looked after children. These are children in the care of their local authority for a number of reasons, including facing abuse or neglect at home, having disabilities that require special care, unaccompanied minors seeking asylum or involvement in the youth justice system. The most recent statistics found that 11,844 children were looked after, down 2% on the previous year. The rate of children looked after per 1,000 children was 11.7 in 2024.⁹ In the same year, there were an average of 60 children in secure care accommodation, up 2% from the previous year. There were 149 admissions to secure care accommodation that year, a 3% decrease from the previous year.¹⁰

Another influencing factor is the Child Protection Register. The amount of children has increased by 3% to 2,129 children in 2024. There were 3,117 children de-registered in 2023-2024, a decrease of 2% from the previous year. A total of 3,167 children were registered, representing a 2% decrease on the previous year. The most common concerns for children registered were: domestic abuse (45%), neglect (42%), parental substance abuse (39%), parental mental ill health (37%) and emotional abuse (33%).¹¹

Another consideration is the demographic make-up of the social work workforce. The associated EQIA for this policy shows that the social work profession is predominantly female. Evidence has shown that females are more likely to experience poverty and this is inextricably linked to child poverty.¹² In order for the Scottish Government to meet its statutory targets for Child Poverty by 2031, women’s poverty levels need to be reduced.¹³ The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2023) report¹⁴ about Poverty in Scotland documented the in-work poverty levels of those in the health and social work profession; although this comes with the caveat that this is a broad category, with slightly different demographics to those recorded by the SSSC.

How this links to the National Social Work Agency

Through supporting opportunity to widen access and remove barriers for people wishing to qualify as social workers and join the profession, an NSWA can, on a national basis, seek to grow a sustainable, diverse workforce to support children and families.

The NSWA will play a key role in the development of a national approach to workforce planning for social work in collaboration with our principal partners. This will ensure we are able to determine current and future demand for social workers and other social service workers required within Scotland.

Child Protection Committees Scotland (CPC Scotland)

The Neglect Indicators Paper assesses whether the indicators of child neglect have improved, worsened or remained the same since 2018. The definition of neglect is multi-faceted encompassing: societal, medical, nutritional, physical, emotional, education and a lack of supervision and guidance. The findings of the paper demonstrate the close relationship between children registered with neglect as a recorded concern and services that find it hard to engage with families. 

The following trends are found to have worsened since 2018:

• children receiving foodbank parcels
• children living in temporary accommodation
• immunisation rates among babies
• developmental concerns among 1–5 year olds
• Primary 1 school age children who are at risk of being underweight
• school pupil attendance
• child deaths

Appropriately, the policy and practice recommendations from the paper are:

• national ‘levelling up’ policies that target poverty, as well as insecurities around income, housing and employment
• more effective management of basic material needs for children and families being a key factor of child protection

How this links to the National Social Work Agency

Social workers uphold social justice and tirelessly champion the rights and needs of the people they support, despite often challenging circumstances. The National Chief Social Work Adviser, supported by the NSWA, will work with partners across the sector to support the most vulnerable in society and remove barriers to encourage effective engagement with children, young people and their families.

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

CELCIS carried out a research study (started in September 2022 and completed in December 2023) looking to evidence ways for improvement in the understanding of Children’s Services. The research covered structures and delivery models currently utilised in Scotland, and how such services can best support the needs of children, young people and their families. The research offers both quantitative and qualitative findings, exploring service provision and the impacts upon service users.

The report states, ‘Any change to the structure and delivery of children’s services must focus on creating the optimal conditions needed to enable success in improving the lives of the children, young people and families who need the support of services’, and that ‘Greater consistency across Scotland would remove some of the uncertainty and risk being experienced currently.’

How this links to the National Social Work Agency

It identifies a range of elements that would support creating these optimal conditions, some of which speak directly to the proposed remit of the NSWA. These include:

• a sufficient and skilled workforce who have manageable workloads and receive the support they need from leaders at all levels
• some functions being led at a national level, including development and implementation of national policy and guidance, workforce planning and data infrastructure to support local service delivery
• structures which actively enable the workforce to provide the help and support that children, young people and families need, and to work together in partnership seamlessly across service and system boundaries

Investment is needed in the workforce, so that children, young people and families are more likely to be supported, when they need support. 

Consideration should be given to increasing the size of the workforce in the longer term, and suggested a range of short to medium-term actions to address recruitment and retention, including:

• enhancing the public and media perceptions of the children’s services sector so that it is viewed as a career of choice
• consideration of pay rates across the children’s services sector so that there is less differential between pay rates in different services and between different local authorities
• greater workforce planning across the children’s services sector to meet current and future recruitment and skills needs
• high-quality, consistent and comparable workforce data is required
• addressing issues of short-term funding across children’s services, so that services are better able to retain staff
• investing in and supporting the existing workforce, through enhanced support for newly qualified practitioners, regular high-quality supervision, learning and development opportunities
• promoting a supportive culture where the learning, development and wellbeing of the workforce are truly valued.

These actions speak to the aims and purpose of establishing a National Social Work Agency, and realising these would support improvements in the social work profession.

The Scottish Government’s Youth Justice Vision

Justice for children and young people: vision and priorities 2024-26 says: ‘It is the responsibility of all those working with children to ensure that the rights of children are upheld, and that children are supported to understand what this means for them and what they should expect.’

The approach to youth justice must align with UNCRC, proceed from a rights-respecting approach, support all children under the age of 18 and young people up to age 26 (where appropriate) to participate in decisions about them, and direct positive support to families – offering that support through safe and caring relationships.

How this links to the National Social Work Agency

Social work uses observation and assessment of strengths and risks; it involves group work, prevention, early support and community work that links education, employment and health; and takes account of personal circumstances to enable the planning and coordination of supports, such as social care or protection activities. They take into account the often fragile and complex relationships around a person and deliver on significant duties to carers. 

Additionally, social workers hold individual professional responsibility for the decisions they take every day that impact people’s lives, their choices and sometimes their freedoms (such as in mental health detentions and orders that protect children and adults). They often exercise these powers at times of significant crisis and distress in the lives of the people, families and communities they seek to support. The NSWA will oversee the national picture, ensuring greater consistency in the support of children and their families, upholding their rights and achieving better outcomes.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people

In assessing the impact the NSWA may have, we sought to consider if there are contexts with more limited research available to examine which links to the need for the establishment of the NSWA. One such area is that of unaccompanied asylum-seeking (UAS) children and young people. This became an important issue following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 and the need for ‘safe’ countries to offer shelter and care to such children and young people. The Scottish Government has published ‘Public Protection Guidance’ for people arriving from Ukraine.¹⁵ Of those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, particular groups are at heightened risk of violence, abuse and exploitation. Amongst these are children without parental care, particularly women and girls who are at greater risk of gender-based violence.¹⁶

Since UAS minors are usually fleeing war and conflict – which is the case for those currently arriving from Ukraine – they require particular attention from social work services.¹⁷ In some cases, a child travelling on their own may have an adult joining them in Scotland later on or plan to meet an adult whilst in Scotland. The relevant local authority must undertake an assessment of the care-giving situation.¹⁸  Additionally, the local authority must conduct disclosure checks to determine the suitability of hosts. This includes an enhanced disclosure check examining unspent convictions and cautions, spent convictions that must be disclosed (including rape, murder and terrorist offences), sex offender notification requirements and other relevant information by the police.¹⁹

Local Area Scoping Exercise (2023) Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children And Our Care System – report

‘On behalf of the Scottish Government and COSLA Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children Short Life Working Group, a scoping exercise was undertaken between October and December 2023. The purpose was to better understand the number of UAS children and young people currently within our care services in Scotland, the types of support provision offered, and the resource and financial pressures that caring for this group of children was placing on local authorities. The exercise also provided the opportunity to enhance our understanding of different models of care.’

These two pieces of evidence combined demonstrate the level of involvement and resource needed to support these groups, alongside the lack of resource available. As these groups are anticipated to seek refuge in the future and therefore the demand is not anticipated to decline, this in turn demonstrates the need for a national approach to workforce planning.

The report ‘highlights the significant lack of placement availability, which is compounded by numerous factors including: the number of children arriving; the impact of continuing care; a decline in the number of foster carers; reduction in internal residential capacity; restrictions on residential capacity; growing pressures on already stretched social work teams and a lack of suitable move on accommodation due to housing pressures. This often leads to extremely high costs as a result of increased use of costly external provision, either for UAS children and young people or local children.’

The initial impact of large numbers of UAS children and young people arriving in Scotland ‘somewhat changed the nature of our care system’, and this impact continues as Scotland responds to the needs of children and young people displaced through conflicts. This means the system has to flex and adapt to new ways of working, responding to ‘different cultures, languages and unique experiences of trauma’. 

How this links to the National Social Work Agency

An NSWA would seek to support the provision of suitable care, ensuring that training for the social work sector and co-ordination of services are appropriate, and can adapt to new challenges into the future. There is a need for consideration of wider issues and how UAS children and young people can be supported during and beyond resettlement through strategies such as The Promise. National oversight will afford the NSWA the ability to ensure national consistency with local flexibility to support local authorities, agencies and practitioners to create, adapt and deliver a supportive pathway that meets the complex needs of these looked-after children.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

UNCRC Act - UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024

The Scottish Government is committed to Scotland being the best place in the world to grow up. A central part of our vision is the recognition of, respect for, and promotion of children’s rights. These include rights to be treated fairly, to be heard and to be as healthy as possible. Our vision is a Scotland where children’s rights are embedded in all aspects of society, where policy, law, and decision-making take account of children’s rights and where all children have a voice and are empowered to be human rights defenders. 

How this links to the National Social Work Agency

As a focal point for social work in Scotland, and accountable to Scottish Ministers, the National Chief Social Work Adviser, assisted by the NSWA, will promote embedding the rights of children and young people into the holistic, relationship-based ideology of social work practice.

Independent Care Review

The Independent Care Review was a comprehensive review of the care system in Scotland which reported in February 2020 and made recommendations on how to ensure Scotland is a place where our most vulnerable children feel loved, respected, listened to and heard in decisions that affect them.

• The Care Review listened very carefully to those with experience of living and working in and around the ‘care system’ to properly understand what needs to change.
• The Care Review heard over 5,500 experiences. Over half were children, young people and adults who had lived in care. The rest were families and the paid and unpaid workforce.
• It was their stories that guided the Care Review and their experiences have shaped everything the Care Review concluded.

The review findings were published in The Promise which set out its findings and the need for change. 

How this links to the National Social Work Agency

The report highlights that children and young people often do not understand what meetings with social workers are for, or how they could ensure their voices are heard. The aim of the NSWA is to create greater consistency in training and practice ideology across the social work profession in Scotland. Through this approach, with a trauma-informed lens, the NSWA will promote value-based practice that places the needs and best outcomes for the children and young people receiving support at its heart.

Transitions to adulthood for disabled young people: literature review

This literature review had a particular focus upon what young people, their families and carers (in Scotland and beyond) had said about the process of transition to adulthood, and the aspects of best practice identified within the literature. It outlines the findings of a review of Scottish, UK and international evidence on disabled young people's experiences of the transition to adulthood and best practice within this field. This transition period can be an exciting and hopeful time but is also often stressful and difficult. 

The literature review found a broad consensus in support of certain guiding principles, largely revolving around holistic, personalised and concerted planning, developed in collaboration with young people and their families, and underpinned by high-quality, well-resourced and well-staffed services, delivered in partnership.

How this links to the National Social Work Agency

The establishment of a well-resourced and well-staffed service aligns with the aims of the NSWA, along with relationship-based practice keeping the child or young person at the centre of support.

‘Seen, Heard, Included’ Report – Supporting meaningful engagement and participation

This report aims to provide a summary of what is required to carry out meaningful engagement with disabled children and young people with complex support needs and their families. It seeks to:

• identify and develop tools and methodology to support the meaningful engagement and participation of disabled children and young people whose needs are complex and whose voices are rarely heard, and their families, and share learning on these approaches
• capture what matters to this cohort of disabled children and young people and their families, and within this context what effective planning and effective support is required. This could contribute to the design and development of the National Care Service and the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy

The project which led to the report identified eleven recommendations for those engaging with disabled children, young people and their families. They concluded that ‘It cannot be underestimated the emotional impact the project had - not only the children, young people and families who selflessly gave up their time to contribute - but the impact this had on all delivery partners. The learning is insurmountable, and we just cannot stop here. Working with the support and encouragement of partners within Scottish Government has proved we have opportunities to enable real change when it comes to future support and planning.’

How this links to the National Social Work Agency

Social workers are vital to assessing need and working in a multi-agency environment to facilitate the best outcomes for the children and young people they support. The national oversight, workforce planning and strategic initiatives that the NSWA will support are key to improve the experiences of children and young people.

Independent Care Review – The Promise Foundation – People

Scotland's Promise says: ‘The children that Scotland cares for must be actively supported to develop relationships with people in the workforce and wider community, who in turn must be supported to listen and be compassionate in their decision-making and care.’

Throughout the Care Review, the importance of the relationship between children and their social workers was highlighted. Many children and young people expressed frustration about the lack of support they had received from their social worker. 

On the other hand, the Care Review also heard many stories of the positive impacts that social workers had had on children and young people’s lives.

• social workers who had expressed love for children
• social workers who had consistently been there through chaotic or difficult periods of their life, helping them
• experiences of being stood up for or fought for by their social worker or of being supported by them with their hobbies, ensuring they had activities they enjoyed built into their lives

How this links to the National Social Work Agency

Building on the positive experiences that many children and young people have reported as above, the NSWA aims to create greater consistency in training and practice ideology across the social work profession in Scotland. Ensuring that children and young people can access the right support at the right time is central to helping them grow up feeling valued, safe and able to build trusting relationships throughout their lives. Establishing a national agency to take oversight of effective improvement strategies for the social work profession will help to achieve this goal. 

Coram Voice – Response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (England)

Coram Voice, a children’s rights organisation, supported the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in England. They heard from over 300 children and young people from over 30 local authorities, through their A National Voice network. Their full report includes a section on what children and young people have valued in their social workers.

Consultation feedback

Comprehensive consultation and engagement has been undertaken in respect of the proposed National Care Service development which helped to inform the need for a national social work agency.

Within the consultation and engagement were questions relating directly to the creation of the NSWA. Stakeholder views are given below:

NCS consultation stakeholder quotes from the Scottish Government’s A National Care Service for Scotland consultation (2021)

A National Care Service for Scotland consultation

Social Work Scotland

‘A National Social Work Agency is no panacea or silver bullet for the challenges facing social work and social care.

‘But for those working in and leading the profession, the establishment of National Social Work Agency is a vital piece in the jigsaw of reform, providing the levers we collectively need to plan, develop and improve social work in Scotland. It will be complementary to existing bodies, assuming responsibilities that currently no one holds, and bringing greater coordination in areas where various partners have a role.’

Scottish Association of Social Workers (SASW)

‘SASW strongly welcomes the proposal to establish a National Social Work Agency.
‘An NSWA offers clear opportunities for a national approach to improvement in social work service design and practice.’

Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA)

‘There is some support across Local Government for an agency that would support raising the status of social work as a profession and procuring training. However, there is some concern about potential duplication with current systems in place and loss of whole system planning, in relation to the proposed functions in the NCS.

‘The proposed remit to set a national approach to terms and conditions, including pay is an area of division.’

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

The response endorses the creation of an NSWA, saying: 

‘A National Social Work Agency (NSWA) is supported by CELCIS as well as the Bill’s proposal to place the role and office of the National Chief Social Work Adviser on a statutory footing.

‘Evidence from the Children’s Services Reform Research study (ref as above) was clear about the need for a more strategic approach to workforce planning, so we believe that social work workforce data and planning will be a particularly important area of work for the NSWA.’

The Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ)

Their response states that:

‘CYCJ is supportive of any development that improves support to and outcomes for children and young people.

‘We also recognise that children are part of families, often requiring support in their own right, grow into adults (at times requiring services through this transition or subsequently) and that the provision of holistic family support is a key component of the Promise. Therefore, the principles of adult social care, children and families social care, justice and health being aligned makes sense.

‘ … social work is critical in the planning, commissioning, provision, delivery, monitoring and review of social work and social care services for children, adults and their families.’

When asked about the perceived benefits of establishing an NSWA, the response states:

‘Efforts to brings all of social work together, that allows them to speak with one voice, celebrate achievements and promotes the value of social work, that allows social work identity to be reclaimed and pushed would be welcomed. This could help understanding and recognition of social work; to articulate social work ethics, values, voice etc.; and promote parity of social work with other professions. In addition, enhanced consistency of and for social workers such as in terms of pay, terms and conditions and grading could be beneficial. The provision of leadership, coordination, enhanced support and a stronger voice for the profession overall could beneficial.’

The response also highlighted, the CYCJ report 'Rights respecting' report calls for Scottish youth justice reform’ shows that many children who are in conflict with the law in Scotland do not experience ‘justice’ in the true meaning of the word. The report did not just highlight the problem but concluded that Scotland would benefit from thinking about children in conflict with the law from the perspective of rights, setting out where change was needed and how this could be achieved. This report has been hugely influential, not least in shaping the Scottish Government’s Justice for children and young people - a rights-respecting approach: vision and priorities. 

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee (Scottish Parliament)

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Scottish Parliament (now re-titled the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025)

The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee (Scottish Parliament) held three sessions (September – October 2024) to hear oral evidence from key stakeholder representatives, as part of their scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s proposed stage 2 amendments to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill at Stage 2 of the parliamentary process. 

The evidence heard by the committee included their views on the creation of an NSWA and its intended scope. 

Key comments relating to social work include:

• A number of recent reports show the significant shortages of social workers throughout the country. High workloads impact social workers’ ability to deliver the support that people need in the way they would like to deliver it.
• The expectations are that the NSWA will be able to address recruitment and retention challenges.
• It is very unusual for someone to fit only within adult social work, only within children and families or only within justice; they normally extend across all three of those areas. Therefore, it makes sense to bring those areas together
• Social Work Scotland, including its members and the 32 chief social work officers in Scotland, strongly welcomes a national social work agency.
• A national social work agency can give back to social work its profession and voice.

[Note – whilst there were some concerns raised in the original consultation feedback around potential fragmentation of services, these are not now relevant as the revised Bill does not include the original proposals, and therefore the NSWA will be relevant to all social workers in Scotland, regardless of the service or employer they are located in.]

Consultation/feedback directly from children and young people

As establishment of the NSWA will not directly impact upon children and young people, but will impact indirectly, as it affects those that provide social work support to them, however please see question 4.