The partner agencies within the Consortium come from three distinct sectors. The Voluntary Sector organisations are represented by the West of Scotland Voluntary Agencies Training Forum. This is an umbrella body for 50+ Voluntary Organisations working within the West of Scotland.
Originally the Public sector members were the Social Work Departments of Strathclyde Regional and Dumfries and Galloway Regional Councils. Following local Government reorganisation in 1996, the social work services of the 13 new West of Scotland successor authorities all agreed to become members of the Consortium. The thirteen councils are listed below:
In geographic terms this means that the Consortium stretches from Dumfries in
the South to Oban in the North and from Kintyre in the West to Lanark in the
East. It thus covers a population of some 2.4 million, or roughly half the population
of Scotland.
The third sector involved in the Consortium is the University sector. All four West of Scotland Universities are members of the Consortium and are all involved in the provision of its DipSW programme. The Open University is also a member of the Consortium but not of the West of Scotland DipSW Programme as it is part of a quite separate DipSW Programme provider partnership that operates on a UK-wide basis. The four West of Scotland Universities are:
Glasgow Caledonian University©West of Scotland Consortium for Education and Training in Social Work 2001.