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1. Introduction
Changing Lives, the report of the 21 st Century Social Work Review, set out a compelling and challenging vision for the future direction of social work services. In the Executive's immediate response to the report, Ministers welcomed the findings of the review, accepted all 13 recommendations and gave a commitment to act upon them. This implementation plan sets out proposals to do that.
The aspirations of Changing Lives represent major cultural change and will be achieved only by a concerted effort at national and local levels over an extended period. Implementation will therefore be both a collaborative process, with a strong emphasis on shared learning, and a progressive process, where plans for the next stage build upon the successes of the one before. A process which recognises that there is no one blueprint for future services that meets every need in every circumstance.
This plan sets out the processes we intend to put in place to support a five year change programme. It also sets out detailed milestones and funding proposals for the first two years of that programme. New funding of £15M will be available for the first two years - £4M for the remainder of this year to get work underway, building to £11M next year. Further funding will follow in the subsequent three financial years, building on the early foundations of the change programme. The scale of the final three years' funding will be influenced by progress with the change programme and the extent of engagement of organisations in transforming the delivery of services.
The focus of new investment will be on ensuring that we get the most out of core funding, rather than on short term funded pilot projects and initiatives. Achieving sustainable change means we need not only to make best use of the £2.4 billion we currently spend on social work services, but also the resources of health, education, police and other publicly funded services that are social work services' partners.
Effective communication and partnership will be essential: within the Scottish Executive; and between the Scottish Executive, national agencies, local authorities, their partners in the public, voluntary and private sectors, and with people who use services and their carers. Achieving many of the aspirations of Changing Lives will require wider public service reform. We will model the implementation process on the principles of public service reform, ensuring coherence of policy development and implementation and seeking opportunities to streamline processes.
The plan is set out in three parts.
Section 2 sets out proposals for national leadership and co-ordination of the implementation process
Section 3 sets out five change programmes which will take forward collaboratively the detail of implementation through developing, testing and sharing approaches for wider implementation.
Section 4 sets out a framework for local self assessment.
Annex A sets out a timeline for action over the next two years.
Annex B sets out a self assessment template for organisations
Annex C sets out a template for self assessment returns
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