Children and Families National Leadership Group minutes: August 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Kathryn Lindsay, Co-chair, SOLACE
• Fiona Whitelock, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
• Stephen Morgan, Social Work Scotland (SWS)
• Chris Lumb, Care Inspectorate (CI)
• Mary Glasgow, Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland
• Saray Taylor, Police Scotland
• Elliot Jackson, Children's Hearings Scotland (CHS)
• Claire Burns, Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection (CELCIS)
• Jane Scott, CELCIS
• Fraser McKinlay, The Promise
• Cheryl Campbell, Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)
• Andrew Watson, Co-chair, Scottish Government
• Angela Latta, Scottish Government
• Shona Urquhart, Scottish Government
• Gavin Henderson, Scottish Government
• Mairi Macpherson, Scottish Government
• Tommy Duguid, Scottish Government
• Sara Hampson, Scottish Government
• Rachel Bell, Scottish Government
• Graham Macleod, Scottish Government

Items and actions

Welcome

Andrew Watson introduced Kathryn Lindsay as the group’s new co-chair on behalf of SOLACE, as well as the following changes in membership:

• Bob Fraser from the Craighalbert Centre has now retired
• Detective Chief Superintendent Sarah Taylor has replaced DCS Graham Grant as the Police Scotland representative
• Secretariat for the group will be provided by Sara Hampson and Graham Macleod, as Peter Donachie has now left Scottish Government

No amendments were made to the draft note of the group’s last meeting on 13 May.

Andrew provided a short update on the leadership event on Whole Family Support (WFS) hosted by the First Minister on 25 June, which was attended by several National Leadership Group (NLG) members. He also advised that planning is underway for a follow on WFS event on 24 September that will bring together practitioners, planners and leaders.

This event will explore what it takes to provide holistic whole family support that responds effectively to need and improves family wellbeing outcomes, helping eradicate child poverty, deliver on The Promise and support our children to get the best start in life.

Recap on work of the workforce development sub-group

Gavin Henderson provided a brief update on the history of the workforce development sub-Ggroup.

This update noted that a workforce development sub-group was initially established in June 2021 by the Children and Families Collective Leadership Group and was chaired by Scottish Government and COSLA. The agreed purpose of this group was to provide strategic oversight on the implementation of the workforce requirements for policies on United Nations Convention on Rights of a Child (UNCRC), Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC), and The Promise.

The group was paused in August 2023 in the context of a proposed National Care Service and National Social Work Agency (NSWA), before proposals to resurrect it were presented to the NLG in December 2024. It was agreed at that December meeting that this workshop should be held to consider next steps.

Update on developments since the sub-group paused

Cheryl Campbell from the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) gave a presentation on the refreshed Common Core resource, which is due to be published shortly and will be renamed ‘Supporting Scotland’s Children – Core Knowledge and Values’. Members were invited to provide feedback and comments, which included:

• Ensuring links with GIRFEC
• Promoting the resource across the children’s services workforce
• Regularly reviewing the resource to ensure it is kept up to date - this should include health stakeholders

Angela Latta provided an update on the development of the NSWA. This presentation set out the role of the NSWA and what it will do, noting that social work education and learning will be led by the agency which will also have a role in national workforce planning, professional development, improvement approaches, implementation support and provide national professional leadership through the Chief Social Work Adviser.

Through its lead role in social work education and professional development, the NSWA will continue the work started by the Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser (OCSWA), which will include the continuation of the graduate apprenticeship scheme, post qualifying awards, different career pathways beyond moving into management, and a national training plan for social workers. Work on the NSWA draft corporate plan is underway and will be signed off by Ministers ahead of its launch in April 2026.

Angela noted that there is still some work to be done regarding which specific workforce groups the agency will cover, however it will certainly cover social workers, social work students that have been registered, and social work assistants. The wider children’s social care sector was not currently in scope, but the connections across the landscape as a whole were clearly understood and would need to be taken into account.

A key feature of the NSWA will be the partnership established between the agency, COSLA, and Social Work Scotland, who will continue to play a role in professional governance and leadership through Chief Social Work Officers. Through the Scottish Social Work Partnership, work is underway to develop an agreed joint strategy to support the workforce, with a series of engagement events scheduled, to share drafts and collate feedback on the plan. The intention is to have this completed by Spring 2026.

Small group discussions – draft theory of change, priorities and planning

Members split into three groups to discuss one of the following questions:

• What would make the biggest difference to the workforces supporting children and families?
• Given the responsibilities of the NSWA and partnership - what opportunities for shared development/ learning and strategy are there for the broader workforce, and how do we equally recognise and support everyone who supports children and families?
• How can we best coordinate responsibilities for strategy, planning and development for the workforce to drive improvement effectively and efficiently?

Following these discussions members were asked to feedback on some of the key points that were raised. Some of the comments made were:

• The ‘workforce’ needs to be clearly defined to ensure work can be properly progressed by NLG and different partners
• Ensuring the NLG is able to work alongside the NSWA, feeding into the development of the agency and then working in partnership without duplicating work
• All professions interacting with children and families should have a common core of skills and values, and this should be planned on a national basis. We should ensure that roles are clearly defined and understood, and that the right training and knowledge is in place to support this
• Contributing factors to workforce issues across professions include leadership, capacity, resourcing, and recruitment and retention. The NLG can help to identify and share good practice across sectors to help alleviate these pressures. This should include some further thinking about how to market careers in the sector in ways that respond to young people’s expectations and preferences
• A national data set should be considered that can be shared with partners to support workforce planning
• A family-centred approach, building on the work of self-directed support and family group decision making should be considered
• Effective children’s services planning can help to address some of these challenges.  It would be helpful to consider whether the impact of third sector organisations was sufficiently visible as part of this process
• The work of the NSWA and the NLG should be future-focused as well as responding to current pressures and opportunities
• The theme of legislation and regulation would be an important consideration moving forward, given the pace and scale of reform over the past five years

Next steps and any other business

Andrew Watson noted that the secretariat would gather the themes from the group discussions.

Kathryn Lindsay commented that the next steps will be to think about how the leadership group can influence some of the thinking in the workforce space, including through a clear set of relationships with other governance and advisory leadership functions in our system.

Having a clearer understanding of all the work and groups currently in train across Scottish Government which supports the workforce (once clearly defined) in order to make the connections, identify gaps/ duplication of effort will be a useful next step.