4.1 Drive national leadership of social work

The National Social Work Agency will provide national leadership and champion the social work profession across statutory, third, and independent sectors.

Supported by the National Social Work Agency, the National Chief Social Work Adviser will ensure:

• national leadership: a unified, authoritative voice for social work at the highest level, ensuring social work expertise informs policy and legislation
• oversight and accountability: annual reporting on the state of social work and its workforce will drive transparency and accountability, highlight challenges, achievements and areas for improvement

Strategic objective:  provide national leadership and strategic direction for the social work profession, and working with social work leaders to advocate for and champion the profession

Outcome: enhanced visibility, influence and support for the social work profession through collaboration and effective national leadership

During 2026/27 our work in this area will focus on:

• championing the social work profession (statutory, third, and independent sector) highlighting social work’s essential role and promoting pride in the profession
• championing a positive and inclusive culture that embeds human rights and social work values, and upholds standards and ethical practice across the profession
• providing peer support and professional guidance to the profession
• strengthening understanding of social workers’ role in navigating complexity, managing risk and leading joined-up responses for people and communities
• supporting and collaborating with social work leaders, including chief social work officers, to develop national approaches and solutions, as needed
• advancing leadership development programmes, including collaboration and commissioning, to ensure confident and capable future social work leaders who drive change in local systems
• national reporting on the state-of-the-profession and social work services (by the National Chief Social Work Adviser)
• contributing to the development of professional care governance arrangements at national and local levels
• leading immediate responses to unplanned issues impacting on the social work sector, where a co-ordinated national and local response is needed
• developing initiatives where a national social work approach (Once for Scotland) is necessary for protecting people and upholding human rights
• leading the development of national guidance for social work, and upholding their use to support improved consistency of practice