The General Social Care Council (GSCC), the regulating body for social work education and training, is validating a national qualifying award designed to ensure consistently high standards of care for people in England. The National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) and APU (Anglia Polytechnic University) together created and designed the Regulation of Care Services Award (RCSA). The first of its kind, the award commenced on 22nd September 2003 and primarily meets the needs of inspectors of regulated social care and independent health care services.

The new inter-professional programme has been developed to enhance the skills of the 1,300 NCSC inspectors who assess the quality of care in 40,000 regulated settings throughout England. The inspectors will benefit from an accredited qualification that will enhance their work in protecting people in care and in working with providers to raise levels of care where necessary.

The course is the first online programme to be validated by the GSCC and harnesses APU’s unique understanding of distance and work-based learning, in which it is fast establishing a reputation for excellence. The course will be part of the new post-qualification framework for social care. Conversion training of existing NCSC inspectors has already been undertaken.

Lynne Berry, Chief Executive of the GSCC, said:

“The GSCC is working to promote high standards of training in social care. This qualification will help to ensure that millions of people who use social care services receive high quality, safe services. This course will formally recognise the wealth of knowledge and experience which already exists out there, and will build upon this. I am delighted that the GSCC has been able to work with both APU and the NCSC to introduce this new qualification for inspectors.”

Ron Kerr, Chief Executive of the NCSC, commented:

“The NCSC together with APU has successfully put together a programme which meets the needs of a diverse group of people. I am delighted with the new inter-professional award, which will help our inspectors draw upon their own experiences. The development of the award is key to our work in protecting service users in regulated settings and the NCSC is proud to have played a fundamental part in its development.”

Lesley Dobree, Dean of the School of Community Health and Social Studies at APU, said:

“The challenge to train professionals working within a broad spectrum of institutions across the country has been met in an effective and creative manner with the development of the RSCA. The collaboration between APU and the NCSC has brought great success and a model for further collaboration. We are delighted with what has been achieved and welcome the opportunity of working together in the future.”

Candidates will be able to call upon their prior learning and experience on the course, which is a blended learning programme, mixing distance learning with regular contact with tutors. Students will be trained and tested in key competencies, such as registration, inspection, dealing with concerns and complaints and the enforcement of regulations. Their practice will be assessed throughout the programme. Timescales will be flexible enough to allow students to fit the programme around their lifestyles.

Note for editors:

1. Further details on the course can be found on the APU (Anglia Polytechnic University) website at; http://www.apu.ac.uk/chss/social/index.html

2. The General Social Care Council (GSCC) came into being on 1 October 2001. It was set up in England under the Care Standards Act 2000 to establish codes of 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.

3. The National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) was established as an independent, non-departmental public body, under the Care Standards Act 2000, to register and inspect a wide range of social care and private and voluntary health care services. It registers and inspects a range of approximately 40,000 establishments. The NCSC will be merging with the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) to become the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) in 2004.

Contacts:

GSCC: Nigel Calvin 020 7397 5804 email nigel.calvin@gscc.org.uk

APU: For further information please contact Lisa Jeffreys at APU (Anglia Polytechnic University) on Tel: 01245 493131 ext 4710, Mobile: 07967 598357 or email: l.jeffreys@apu.ac.uk

NCSC Press enquiries:
John Paul Maytum- 020 7855 0548
Philippa Quayle- 020 7855 0531
Amy Ross - 020 7855 0534
Tom Frackowiak- 020 7855 0532
Out of Hours Contact- 07659 133392
Web site: www.carestandards.org.uk