Children’s Minister Margaret Hodge presented care home manager Maggie Pinder with the one millionth copy of the General Social Care Council’s codes of practice for social care workers and employers today (21 October 2003) at its annual conference in London.
The GSCC’s codes set down minimum standards of conduct and practice for social care workers and provide the basis for the registration and regulation of the social care workforce.
Accepting the codes of practice, Ms Pinder said, “The codes of practice are clear, straightforward and easy for my staff to understand and put into practice. They reaffirm the high standards I and my staff already work to – I see them as the foundation of good practice.”
The codes were launched in September 2002. In just over a year, the GSCC has distributed one million copies of the codes, meaning that nearly everyone in the social care workforce in England should have access to a copy.
More than 300 people attended the conference which highlighted the GSCC’s successes over the last year including the opening of the first ever Social Care Register, the launch of the new degree in social work, the review of post-qualifying training and the launch of the new bursary for social work students.
Speaking at the conference, Chief Executive of the GSCC, Lynne Berry, said, “This has been a great year for the GSCC and the social care sector. The GSCC is a major player in the revitalisation of the social care sector and in the past year we have introduced some very important changes which will have a long-term impact. I am confident these changes will make for a better, safer, more effective social care workforce for service users.”
The GSCC is working with 40 organisations to register around 15,000 qualified social workers. Registration will help drive up standards in the workforce and put social work on a similar footing as other regulated professions such as medicine, nursing and teaching.
Minister for Children, Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MBE MP, spoke at the conference about the effect of the recently released Green Paper: Every Child Matters on the social care workforce and the role of the GSCC.
Chair of the GSCC, Rodney Brooke, set out the GSCC’s vision of the future of the social care workforce saying that it would be “accountable and regulated, better qualified and will work across boundaries with other professions such as teaching and the police force”.
“Higher standards, better training and firm but fair regulation will all add up to higher public esteem for a sector that does so much to help so many people everyday.”