Scottish services are losing experienced social workers, leaving newly qualified practitioners without support and putting the quality of services at risk.

That was the warning from the Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW), in response to comments made last month that experienced staff were not applying for social work vacancies in the country.

“Anecdotally, we are hearing that the only people applying for social work roles are NQSWs,” said Anne Tavendale, learning and development manager at the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), at a session during Social Work England’s Social Work Week.

Though the SSSC was not able to comment further on the issue, SASW’s national director, Alison Bavidge, raised significant concerns about the imbalance in experience in social work teams.

We are hearing that there are teams where a large number of members are social workers who are newly qualified or at an early stage in their career,” she said.

“This presents difficulties in creating an environment and culture that provides the, often informal, coaching and mentoring support that newly qualified practitioners need which has always been a key part of induction to the profession. Loss of experience in teams may, over time, affect the quality of service. It will increase pressure on all team members and the line manager, who needs to support their staff and quality assure the work of the team.”

The value of such peer support to NQSWs was made clear in a five-year study on their experiences published by SSSC last year. This found that:

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