news from Scotland

The search for the best social service projects, teams and organisations showcasing innovation, excellence and dedication in Scotland is nearly completed as the finalists are announced today.

Do you work in the health and social service sector?  The SSSC and NES (NHS Education) are recruiting for a Project Lead (Carers Strategy).  The post will support SSSC and NES’s partnership work programme to implement the education/training plans arising from Caring Together, Getting It Right for Young Carers and The Carers Strategies for Scotland 2010-2015.

IRISS (The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services) believes that partnership working is vital when improving services, encouraging all service stakeholders to share their knowledge and experience and to use this to work towards desired changes.  Central to this is the belief that people who use services should have an equal voice and stake in the identification and development of these ideas.

Scottish Ministers are looking to fill a number of Council Member positions with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC). If you are interested in a commitment to the provision of high quality social services which have the needs of users and carers at the centre of provision, we would like to hear from you.

Everyone in Scotland will use social services at some time in their lives such as nurseries, care homes for older people and care at home.  In a joint initiative the Scottish Social Services Council, the social service workforce regulator, and the Care Inspectorate, the social care scrutiny and improvement body, have worked together to produce a joint leaflet, Looking after your care, which provides information on the role both organisations have in improving the quality and standards in care services.

This month sees the closure of the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) in England.

The CWDC has been a valued partner of the SSSC in the sector skills council, Skills for Care and Development, for many years and I am sorry to see them go.

Their final newsletter sets out some of their achievements and explains how their work will be carried on by other organisations in the future.

Anna Fowlie
SSSC Chief Executive