Introduction

The Continuous Learning Framework (CLF) was developed by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS) through a process of engagement, involvement and robust consultation with the social services sector.

Consultation process

The SSSC and IRISS worked with a ‘reference pool’ of people from the across the social services sector to develop a first draft of the CLF for extensive consultation. 

During the consultation process, five consultation events were held across Scotland, an on-line survey was conducted and the CLF was 'tested out' in practice through nine trials.  The trials reflected the diversity of both service areas and geography.  The CLF was welcomed overall and we are grateful to the many individuals and organisations who contributed so constructively to this process.  The feedback from the five consultation events and from the on-line consultation was analysed independently by George Street Research.

Download the Analysis of consultation responses.
Click here for the Summary of reports from consultation events.

Response to the consultation feedback

The SSSC and IRISS worked with the people in the reference pool to redraft the CLF following the analysis of the consultation feedback.  The main changes made in response to the comments and suggestions provided during the consultation period and the learning from the trials were:

• we made the language more accessible and included a glossary of key terms
• we improved the links between the four areas of the CLF
• we strengthened the involvement of people who use services and their carers at earlier stages of progression in the organisational capabilities
• we strengthened cultural awareness and inclusion in both the personal and organisational capabilities in consultation with black and minority ethnic staff
• we added an additional organisational capability which is 'treating others with dignity and respect'
• we reduced the number of personal capabilities from 17 to 13 by combining some of them, i.e. we introduced a new personal capability of 'professional autonomy' which incorporates judgement and initiative; motivating and leading others and teamwork were joined; and developing others and lifelong learning were brought together
• we changed the order of the personal capabilities and added brief definitions of each of them
• we used examples from the trials to illustrate various ways the CLF can be used in practice
• we made it clear that decisions about the use of the capabilities are at the discretion of social service employers and workers
• we put the fictional scenarios in an appendix and re-wrote these to address all four areas of the CLF.

Publication and launch

The CLF was launched on 3 December 2008 by Adam Ingram, the Minister for Children and Early Years.

Click here for more information about the launch and use the link to the launch press release.