This document concludes the first stage of a serious and systematic attempt to address the deficiencies in the social work information base in Scotland. Senior social work managers, the wider local government community, the Scottish Executive and the Accounts Commission for Scotland have all demonstrated their commitment to working together, through the Social Work Information Review Group, to define a list of information about social work that will meet the needs of all the organisations.
The Local and National Information Requirements are firmly based on extensive consultation with all 32 Councils, central government, and many other agencies. All the participants in the review process endorse the document that follows and are working to deliver the next stage of the Review -Data Standards for Social Work Services. Councils will be able to use the Local and National Information Requirements to audit their existing social work information systems and to commission changes in the way core information is recorded, categorised, retrieved and used. Central government will be able to use the document to plan improvements to the national statistics on a joint basis with Councils.