Skip to main content
The Morning Star Shop
National care service: social workers’ concerns
We were beginning to make progress on the challenges facing social workers that see so many leave the job only a few years after qualifying — instead the NCS Bill has taken things out of our hands once more, warns KATE RAMSDEN

SOCIAL WORK in Scotland is facing another major upheaval. The national care service (NCS) consultation and subsequent Bill published in June, proposes the removal of social work from local authority control and its transfer to a National Social Work Agency, which will come under the purview of Scottish ministers.  

Launched with almost no detail about why such drastic change is needed or what it will look like in practice, it will have the impact of depressing the morale of already demoralised social workers and will no doubt see even more of them leave a profession that is already under the cosh.  

As a social worker for 42 years, I know first hand the key role that social work staff can play in the lives of the families and individuals they support. They are often among the most disadvantaged in our communities and their need for social work services is very often underpinned by poverty and deprivation.  

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Lunar House in Croydon, south London which houses the headquarters of UK Visas and Immigration, a division of the Home Office
Voices of Scotland / 30 October 2025
30 October 2025

The visa system traps workers with abusive employers, creating a vulnerable workforce scared to complain for fear of deportation — that is why we’re campaigning for a ‘common sponsorship’ model instead, writes FAVOUR DAVIDKING

MEDIA LOVE-IN: Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon with broadcaster Kirsty Wark (left), ahead of the Edinburgh International Book Festival launch event of Frankly, her memoir, Thursday August 14
Voices of Scotland / 19 August 2025
19 August 2025

On the release of her memoir that reveals everything except politics, Sturgeon’s endless media coverage has focused on her panic attacks, sexuality and personal tragedies while ignoring her government’s many failures, writes PAULINE BRYAN  

School support workers, who are members of Unison, Unite and GMB Scotland, on the picket line at Portobello High School in Edinburgh, September 26, 2023
Funding / 28 April 2025
28 April 2025

Tackling poverty in Scotland cannot happen without properly funded public services. Unison is leading the debate

Members of Unite, Unison, GMB, and the EIS trade unions stag
Voices of Scotland / 25 February 2025
25 February 2025
As we face savage cuts to our pay and conditions while the executive gravy train chugs on, Unite is putting the Scottish government on notice as workers prepare for a massive wave of resistance, writes DEREK THOMSON