Exclusive: Scots launch recruitment campaign

    Who would be a social worker? That is a question Cathy Jamieson,
    minister for education and young people in the Scottish executive,
    is about to address in a big way with Scotland’s first recruitment
    campaign for social work.

    The campaign, which kicks off on 22 October, will feature four
    weeks of television and press advertising followed by a repeat of
    the advertising in January. All adverts will carry the core
    message: Care in Scotland – life changing work. They will also
    carry two telephone numbers, one for the Scottish Social Services
    Council for careers advice, the second for a jobseekers’ helpline
    that will link in with different local authorities. A key focus
    will be the relationship between service user and social worker,
    which recent research revealed as being the most important to
    professionals.

    The recruitment campaign is the first of 12 proposals in the Action
    Plan for Scotland, which was announced by the executive in April
    when an extra £3.5m was announced for local authorities to
    fund training and support front-line staff.

    The campaign will set out to address the issues of recruitment and
    retention of staff as well as improving the way social work is seen
    by the public and the media. But it promises to be tough. According
    to the latest figures on social work staff, in the 10 years to
    October 2001 the number of qualified social workers rose by more
    than 20 per cent to 3,900. But the number of staff in local
    authority social work departments fell from about 40,000 to
    34,683,1 reflecting the increasing role
    of the independent sector in direct service provision.

    Nevertheless, Jamieson, who formerly worked with young people at
    risk and is now Labour MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley in
    Ayrshire, relishes the challenge.

    Speaking exclusively to Community Care, she says the
    campaign will have a huge impact on anyone who has considered
    social work as a career but perhaps has not known how to proceed
    with an application.

    “We aim to put social work on the map,” the minister says. “In
    recent years demand for social workers has risen, but the workforce
    has not kept pace. There is a staff shortfall of between 350 and
    400 across Scotland – 8.5 per cent of all social worker
    posts.”

    The social work sector has shaped the campaign through a steering
    group consisting of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities,
    the Association of Directors of Social Work, the voluntary sector,
    the Scottish Social Services Council, the Scottish Qualifications
    Authority and Careers Scotland.

    “The success or otherwise of this campaign will depend on effective
    partnerships between the executive, employers, local authorities,
    academic institutions and employment advisers,” Jamieson
    says.

    The minister describes recruitment so far as patchy and haphazard,
    with different problems emerging in different areas. Glasgow has a
    shortage of staff to work with children, while some rural areas in
    the Highlands find it difficult to attract specialist staff.
    Throughout Scotland, there is a shortage of home care
    workers.

    Although Jamieson insists that access to training and a solid legal
    foundation is essential, the climate is not encouraging. The number
    of graduates in Scotland with a degree in social work fell from 303
    in 1996 to 193 in 1999. Edinburgh University this year decided to
    scrap its social work degree course and move all other social work
    training to its law faculty.

    Jamieson hopes to launch the new degree course by autumn 2004,
    although she accepts that this is an ambitious target. But she
    acknowledges that training and qualifications are not much good
    unless public perceptions of social work improve too.

    “For many years now social workers have been desperate for
    something to be done about their image,” Jamieson says.

    “We will be challenging stereotypes and making sure the public
    appreciate that people who become social workers are as varied and
    diverse as they are in any other profession.

    “We need to rethink our approach and modernise it so we can sell it
    to the young people in the 21st century.”

    Mission impossible? Jamieson doesn’t seem to think so.

    1 Staff of Scottish Local Authority
    Social Work Services 2001, Scottish executive, October 2002, from
    www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/ bulletins/00197-00.asp

    Campaign information from www.careinscotland.co.uk

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