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What are social workers talking about in Scotland? What aren’t social workers talking about in Scotland might have been an easier question.

Mental health, child protection and young offenders are hot topics as are joined-up services and, increasingly, older people, especially after the news that Scotland’s population is getting older. By the year 2030 it is predicted there will be half a million more pensioners in this country and an 80 per cent increase in those aged 85 and over.

Most of these concerns are addressed in the action plan produced in April by the Scottish executive. This 12-point plan pledges a commitment to an awareness and recruitment campaign, a new honours degree qualification as well as £3.5m extra funding to go into staff training.

Since regionalisation there have been 32 local authorities in Scotland dealing with social work as opposed to the previous 12. Of course different parts of Scotland create different pressures. One thing is certain, in every local authority from the Highlands down to Borders staff recruitment is a major issue, with some councils trying to outbid others by upping the ante and offering better terms and conditions.

There are irritations as well - such as the fact that there is now no minister for social work in Scotland. Responsibilities are shared and, as a result, some feel, rather blurred: child care, for example, comes under education, community care under health, and crime under social justice. Each has its own budget.

Social workers complain of a lack of synchronicity with local authorities feeling cheated by the fact that the executive funds everything, making any sense of control difficult for individual departments.

When announcing the action plan, minister for education and young people Cathy Jamieson also unveiled the creation of a post to progress "joined-up thinking" with responsibility for co-ordinating policies that affect social services throughout the executive. This post has now been filled by Kate Vincent.

Moving from the general to the particular, child protection is in the forefront of concern. As a response to the Victoria Climbié Inquiry, a ministerial working group was set up to consider ways of improving work practices, and the executive has just announced that it will introduce a child protection bill. The Protection of Children (Scotland) Bill will create a list of people unsuitable to work with children. The courts will refer anyone convicted of an offence that demonstrates their unsuitability, and it will be an offence for anyone on the list to continue to work with children, or apply for a job working with children.

There will also be a legal duty on organisations such as nurseries, schools, scouts and guides to check the list before employing someone and it will be an offence for any of these organisations to employ anyone on the list.

Another item on the executive’s agenda is recruitment and retention. When Jamieson launched the action plan, she said: "Social workers do a job that is difficult and demanding. Their daily work is often unrecognised or taken for granted. That is why one of our immediate actions is to hold a recruitment campaign to raise the profile of social work and attract people to what is a worthwhile and rewarding career."

But talking is one thing - action quite another. Many professionals are feeling impatient with ministers. For too long there has been this notion that social work in Scotland is on the verge of the biggest shake-up in history. But people have had enough of empty promises. They want to see plans in action.

Action on mental health came as Community Care went to press, when the executive published a new mental health bill which will herald the most fundamental reform of Scotland’s mental health laws for 40 years.

The key changes are:

• New procedures for compulsory care and treatment which will be tailored to meet the needs of the individual patient.
• New procedures for compulsory care and treatment, which will be tailored to meet the needs of the individual patient
• A new mental health tribunal, involving doctors, lawyers and other experts, to make decisions about compulsory care
• Stronger duties on local authorities to provide care and support services to people with mental health problems and learning disabilities
• New rights for mental health service users to have their interests represented by independent advocates

The bill also updates the arrangements for dealing with the small number of people with a mental disorder who become involved in criminal offences.

Mental health groups have broadly welcomed the bill, although some concerns remain.

The Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH), together with 54 other organisations across Scotland, is widely supportive of the bill but it is calling for it to be closely scrutinised, and amended, on its passage through parliament.

SAMH chief executive Shona Barcus says: "Whilst the proposals are not as draconian as the legislation being proposed south of the border, there are areas that cause concern including new powers of compulsion in the community and safeguards around controversial treatment."

The new legislation follows a review of Scotland’s mental health laws by a committee headed by the former Scottish secretary Bruce Millan, and consultation was wide-ranging and thorough and recommendations clear and succinct.

The fear remains, however, that the bill may run out of parliamentary time. Mental health charities are concerned that next year's elections could scupper its chances.

Barcus warns that March 2003 is the cut-off point for any new legislation ahead of next May’s Scottish parliamentary elections. "It seems ironic that such a crucial piece of legislation has only got six months to make its way through parliament," she says. "If everybody does not agree on its content by If everybody does not agree on its content by next March it could be too late and we may not have a new act - even after all this."

Another piece of legislation which is exercising minds is the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002, which introduced free personal care and has sparked a debate about its implementation.

For example, in theory any pensioner who needs help preparing food should have the service free. But the executive’s guidelines to councils responsible for implementing free care says the service should be provided free only to old people needing specialist meals. The uproar continues.

The Criminal Justice Bill and the question of what to do with 14 to 18-year-olds who break the law is also controversial.

Should they be referred to a children’s hearing, a youth court or an adult court? The bill seeks to set up a risk management agency for violent offenders as well as drugs courts for repeat offenders who commit crime to feed their habit.

Most professionals are well aware that it is more than three years since the inaugural Scottish parliament promised all these changes. First minister Jack McConnell pledged from day one that he would instigate an overview of all social work in Scotland so that Labour could fulfil its promise to help vulnerable people.

Inevitably, with so many changes in the wind, all has not been plain sailing. In fact, observers have noticed a number of hiccups in the programme of promised radical reform.

If the proposals are not implemented soon, many local authorities will have to follow the lead of South Lanarkshire Council, which now offers staff alternative therapies as a way of helping them cope with stress.

But the British Association of Social Work’ s professional officer in Scotland, Ruth Stark, is philosophical about the future. "Social workers accept people without condoning the behaviour that has brought them into conflict with their family, their neighbourhood or the whole of society," she says.

"It’s important to remember that social workers are on the receiving end of all these changes …in mental health, child protection, criminal justice and community care. We are responsible for ‘effecting change with a person’ in the context of their past, present and future environment.

"This is highly sophisticated work, requiring skills, knowledge and experience. Hopefully, the new social work degree, the recruitment campaign and the investment in the workforce as a whole, will allow us to successfully effect this change."