The Newly Qualified Social Worker Supported Year Programme Survey

Introduction

Iriss has been commissioned by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to undertake an evaluation of the NQSW Supported Year implemented nationally in October 2024.

This mandatory supported first year in practice is part of Scottish Government’s ambition to create a strategic framework from qualifying education through to advanced practice for all social workers and social work employers in Scotland. The approach has been developed to improve consistency in the support available to nurture and retain the next generation of registered social workers  in Scotland .

There are two strands to the Iriss survey:

1. Hearing from employers to understand how the employer support requirements are being embedded within organisations

2. Hearing from NQSWs and supervisors to understand how the NQSW Supported Year model (with key stage reviews) and developmental approach is experienced by NQSW and supervisors 

Your completion of this survey matters. We want to hear from everyone who has been involved and has direct experience of the supported year. The survey findings will provide an important baseline providing information on how the supported year has been implemented, what has worked well and what could be improved.

Who is this survey for?

This survey is for NQSW’s, employers, supervisors and - anyone who has been involved with supporting the implementation of NQSW Supported Year.  

If you need to access this survey in a different format, please contact Katie Feyerabend at katie.feyerabend@iriss.org.uk  and we will get in touch to organise this. You can choose to answer these questions directly on the survey form or to engage with this via a telephone call or teams meeting with Teresa Atkinson, Associate.

If you would like to take part in a more in-depth focus group once you have completed the survey, please add your contact details at the end of the form and someone will be in touch with you.

Confidentiality and Reporting

Iriss have been commissioned by the Scottish Social Services Council to design the questionnaire, manage the data and report on findings.

Confidentiality is assured.  This means we will NOT ask for any personal information such as name, email address, date of birth or similar, unless you wish to be contacted for a follow-up interview.  All data will be used solely for the purpose of this survey and will not be shared outside of the research team.  Further, no individual responses will be shared with the exception of anonymised quotes which may be shared to exemplify elements of the supported year.   All findings will be presented in aggregated form and no identifying information will be published.

If you have any questions about your participation or how your data will be used, please contact katie.feyerabend@iriss.org.uk 

To begin 

We expect this survey to take around 30 minutes to complete.  Clicking on the ‘agree to participate in research’ button below indicates that:

•  You have read the above information
• You agree to participate in the survey
• You understand that your participation is voluntary, and you are free to withdraw at any time, without giving reason

Note:  If you do not wish to participate, please decline participation by clicking on ‘Do not agree to participate in the survey’ button.

Thank you for completing the survey! We really appreciate your feedback and are grateful you took the time to complete this. 

If you would like to be part of the voluntary focus groups which will explore some of the findings of the surveys in more depth, please leave your contact details below. They will not be used for any other purpose that getting in touch about the focus groups. 

If you have any questions about the focus groups please contact Teresa at teresa.atkinson@iriss.org.uk 

 

You DO NOT have to take part in the focus groups, as these are completely voluntary. If you do not want to take part, leave the following fields empty and click the submit button.