You are receiving this invitation to respond to the ‘Have Your Say’ workforce wellbeing survey for workers in social work, social care and children and young people’s services. This is the second year of the survey.
The Diffley Partnership – an independent research organisation – have been asked by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to lead this research. The SSSC has also funded this research.
We, Diffley Partnership, are an independent research organisation based in Edinburgh. Our skilled team engage with the public, businesses and stakeholder audiences from all sectors. We use both quantitative methods (like surveys) and qualitative methods (like focus groups).
We regularly conduct consultation analyses, evaluations and wider social research projects, including surveys and interviews.
Our research adheres to the Social Research Association’s Research Ethics Guidance (Research Ethics Guidance (the-sra.org.uk)).
This research focuses on workforce wellbeing and explores topics such as pay, terms and conditions, support and access to training and qualifications, as well as experiences of working in the sector.
The SSSC will use the evidence we gather in this research in its work with Scottish Government and other key partners. Your experiences will be used to influence the development of national policies and workforce strategies, and to inform national workforce planning for social services.
Who is the survey for?This survey is for all social service workers practicing in Scotland, including those who are registered with SSSC or other regulatory body, and others - for example those not required to be registered but who work in a registered social care or childcare service or social work setting. You can also complete this survey if you have left your role in social services in the past 12 months.
How long will it take?The survey should take around 15-20 minutes to complete. The survey will save your responses as you go, so you can leave and pick up where you left off. This survey can be completed on any device.
How will my responses be used? Diffley Partnership will collect the responses and provide the SSSC with anonymous data and analysis. Diffley Partnership will create a report which will be published on the SSSC website in Spring 2026.
Will the survey collect personal data?You will remain anonymous throughout this survey unless you choose to provide your contact details to take part in a focus group. The survey does not ask for your name or any information that would identify you to researchers or to the SSSC. If you include any identifying details in free‑text responses, Diffley Partnership will remove these before sharing the data with SSSC.
The survey includes optional questions about protected characteristics such as your age. It also asks about trade union membership. These are collected anonymously, and you can choose not to answer any question if you prefer.
Diffley Partnership works in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Market Research Society Code of Conduct.
Only anonymised, aggregate data will be provided to SSSC, so no individual‑level data will be shared.
You can view Diffley Partnership’s privacy statement
here and SSSC’s privacy statement
here.
