News

Scottish councils could be employing social workers without the necessary checks because of staff shortages and the time it took to do a check, the parliament’s education committee was told last month.

MSPs heard from social work chiefs that it takes eight to 10 weeks for a check to be completed.

Alexis Jay, vice president of the Association of Directors of Social Work said that because of the time there was a temptation to “start this person on a temporary contract prior to receiving checks”.

She said however said that she had no evidence of this actually happening.

However, Cosla’s social work spokesperson Eric Jackson said it did happen, but councils would not give these recruits “front-line responsibilities”.

MSPs were also told that the growth of new social work initiatives in areas such as family services and youth justice was leading to problems of recruitment in traditional child protection posts.


The new initiatives were recruiting seasoned social workers from children and adult services leaving these areas to be staffed by overworked and inexperienced staff.

Local government union Unison has called for a review of social work in Scotland. The union said that child protection services could not operate with 40 to 50 per cent staff shortages.