As the body set up by Parliament to raise standards in social care in England through registration, codes of practice, and regulation of social work training, Chair Rodney Brooke said the GSCC would be looking to see what part it could play in improving standards.
Mr Brooke said he shared the sadness of colleagues in social care, health and the police at the tragic death of Victoria Climbié.
He welcomed the report by Lord Laming, which received evidence from the GSCC amongst its 3,800 submissions.
The General Social Care Council was set up in October 2001 under legislation passed in 2000 following the 1998 White Paper, Modernising Social Services. Victoria Climbié died in February 2000.
Mr Brooke said: “The death of Victoria Climbié and the circumstances surrounding it are terrible and shocking.
“The social care world is changing fast. Many of those changes were put in train before Victoria’s murder and are still coming on stream – but they are changes which in the next few years will considerably improve public protection and reduce the risk of this happening again. For example, we now have a code of practice for social care workers and employers. Some of the mistakes and problems that happened in this case and others before it are explicitly addressed in those codes of practice. For example, the code requires all social care workers to work in partnership with other agencies, as well as setting out the responsibilities of both workers and employers to ensure the delivery of high quality care.
“In addition, from this year, qualifying training for social workers will be a GSCC-approved degree that will require and deliver training in inter-professional working in a wide range of multi-disciplinary environments. And it will also place a much stronger emphasis on practical, work experience-based training.
“And in the future, we will have a register of social care workers. Workers who breach our code of practice could be removed from the register. In this way, any person found to be unsuitable would be prevented from working in social care.”
Mr Brooke stressed that as long as there are evil or inadequate people in the world, no system could ever totally prevent a tragedy occurring. But he added: “These measures, coupled with the work of other new bodies, such as the future Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Social Care Institute for Excellence, and other innovations in the sector, will raise standards and improve protection.”
Mr Brooke said: “Social care is changing, in recognition of the important, life-sustaining work that social care workers do. Over the next few years, the GSCC will make a major contribution to raising standards in the interests of service users and the public. And it is right that we will champion the vital work done by so many committed social care workers. For society relies on skilled, dedicated social care workers. The tragic death of Victoria reveals just how much we rely on workers and managers to do their jobs well in order to save children from abuse and death.”
EVIDENCETOTHEVICTORIACLIMBIÉINQUIRY.doc