The General Social Care Council has appointed top law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse to handle its legal brief for the first phase of its work in developing a new regulatory framework for social care.

The company will advise the GSCC on new rules and regulations to register the social care workforce.

A new form of regulation, the GSCC is responsible for registering 1.2 million people working in social care in England. It will have the power to “strike off” anyone unfit to practice on grounds of misconduct, bad practice, negligence, abuse or ill health.

Lynne Berry, Chief Executive of the GSCC, said: “We have a huge agenda to deliver better social care to people by making sure the workforce is the best it can be. By setting out codes of practice and registering care workers we’re aiming to help improve standards. The codes will set out the standards of conduct and practice social care workers will have to reach.

“The legal issues around setting up a register of more than a million workers are complex and demand high quality advice. We had an excellent field of companies to consider and are pleased to appoint Fisher Field Waterhouse. Working with us, they will be at the heart of helping to define a legally sound, fair, equitable and robust registration and conduct system.”

Some 70,000 qualified social workers will be in the first wave of people registered by the GSCC next year.

The General Social Care Council came into being on 1 October 2001. It was set up in England under the Care Standards Act 2000 to establish codes of conduct and practice for social care workers and employers, to set up a register of social care workers and to regulate social work education and training. Similar bodies exist in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Lorna Shearman 020 7393 5830