Affordability and funding

The preferred option, establishing the NSWA as an executive agency, is affordable within the existing Scottish Government revenue budget envelope. The Outline Business Case, and the Accountable Officer Assessment prepared to support the Cabinet decision on the NSWA, estimated that the additional cost of establishing the NSWA would be £550,000 in 2025/26, rising to £947,000 by 2031/32. These costs were also reflected in the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill Financial Memorandum (published March 2025). It was noted that this additional cost would be met from within the existing DG Education and Justice portfolio. 

To ensure affordability the NSWA will be funded through the repurposing and reallocation
of the existing budget allocated to the Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser. The NSWA will also be staffed primarily through the transfer of existing staff from that team, ensuring that it operates within existing Scottish Government headcount limits.

Establishing the NSWA will result in additional corporate costs, however these have been minimised wherever possible, whilst ensuring appropriate financial and corporate functions are delivered effectively and efficiently. 

Further detailed work on the likely additional costs has been carried out and these are outlined in this Final Business Case. This work has significantly reduced the estimated additional costs – largely due to reductions in the estimated shared service costs alongside revised staffing assumptions which were previously based on a higher headcount of 43. 

As a consequence, the additional costs for 2025-26 have reduced to £9k, as no further costs will be incurred until after the NSWA is established on 1 April 2026 The £9k additionality in 2025/26 relates to costs associated with the logo design and filming for the NSWA launch in March 2026. This will be met from the existing OCSWA budget.   

During this “shadow year” set up costs have been minimised through the use of a core team within the Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser who have focused on establishing the agency, these are estimated “sunk costs” which include approximately £757,000 of staffing costs from the existing OCSWA budget.  

In addition, given the small size of the NSWA, and the fact it is largely been created from an existing Scottish Government structure, a number of corporate set up costs have not been charged.  Thereafter, the additional costs are expected to stabilise at around £278k in 2027-28, and rising in line with forecast inflation for each future year.

This budget covers the core operational costs of the NSWA only and does not include funding for specific programmes or project delivery. Programme and project budgets will be requested through the usual Scottish Government budget processes as required.