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17 Oct 2022

NQSW Supported Year - Scottish Government statement. October 2022

NQSW Supported Year - Scottish Government statement. October 2022

We are pleased to share the following statement on the NQSW Supported Year from the Scottish Government on 17/10/2022.

The Scottish Government remains committed to a mandatory supported first year in practice for newly qualified social workers (NQSWs). This is part of the ambition to create a strategic framework from qualifying education through to advanced practice for all social workers and social work employers in Scotland.

The Office of the Chief Social Work Advisor (OCSWA), the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and Social Work Education Partnership (SWEP) are working together to develop the infrastructure required to support this ambition. The indicative timeline to begin national implementation of the NQSW Supported Year is September 2024 to align with required regulatory change, regional developments and the advanced practice workstreams.

In the meantime. the programme of work to create a NQSW Supported Year will continue. This includes: continuing to support the early implementation areas with further evaluation of the experience and impact of the supported year, research to understand the current learning and development infrastructure, building regional support and oversight through SWEP, making the required changes to the regulatory framework and continuous professional learning requirements for NQSWs and incorporating the NQSW Supported Year within the advanced practice framework for social workers.

We are committed to sharing the learning from the early implementation activity to date. The project team will host a series of engagement events throughout 2023 to support a wider understanding of the approach and steps required to support implementation. Further information will be disseminated through the NQSW website and project team.

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