A proposed order of groups for registration have been set out for sector-wide consultation by the workforce regulator in England, the General Social Care Council (GSCC).
With an estimated 1.2 million people working in social care in England, registration is being opened to different categories of the workforce in turn. The GSCC has proposed who the next groups should be following an assessment of the risk posed to service users by different types of social care worker and the settings in which they work. This approach will enable registration to benefit social care users who are most at risk and spread high standards throughout the sector as fast as possible.
Deputy Chief Executive Mike Wardle said:
“Registration is vital to ensure that social care workers are properly trained, checked and accountable. It will have a major impact on service users, the sector as a whole and on standards and training. But first we need to consider which groups should be the next priorities, based on what will most benefit the quality of care and the protection that service users receive. We want to hear from service users and the sector on who should be registered next.”
Views on the proposed approach and order for registration are invited during the three month consultation which closes on 8 November 2004. The GSCC will consult on details of how the registration process will work for these next groups to be registered at a later date.
Based on assessment of risk, the GSCC is proposing social care managers are registered as the next priority. The responsibility they hold for supervising other care workers, including new staff and unqualified staff, and for setting the organisational culture, means it is especially important that they are properly trained and accountable for high standards. Care staff working in people’s own homes, in children’s homes and in outreach work and residential family centres were classified as the next priority, as the setting and client groups involved heightens the risk presented if things go wrong.
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Notes to editors:
1. The consultation document can be downloaded here. You can also order a copy by phone on 020 7397 5800 or email info@gscc.org.uk. Comments on the proposals are invited by fax, email or post. Copies are being sent directly to organisations representing service users, employers and care workers.
3. The proposed order for registration after qualified social workers and social work students is:
- social care managers;
- outreach and domiciliary care workers, residential child care workers, and those working in residential family centres;
- other residential care workers;
- staff working in adoption and fostering agencies, and adult placement services; and
- inspection and training staff in social care.
4. The GSCC considered factors such as whether service users were in particularly vulnerable groups (including children at risk or in care, young people with learning disabilities, people with mental illness, older people); whether the care setting heightened the risk (such as those cared for in their own homes, in residential care, day centre); and level of responsibility held by certain types of care worker (such as managers, trainers, educators, those involved in inspection or regulation).
5. Earlier this year following its elder abuse enquiry, the Health Select Committee highlighted concern “that service users may be placed at continuing risk from day-to-day contact with unregistered care workers” and that domiciliary care workers and other care workers needed to be registered without delay.
6. After the consultation, the GSCC will provide advice to Government who will decide which groups of social care worker should be registered next. The GSCC intends to consult on how registration will be implemented for the next groups, once these have been decided. The register will not open to the next groups of social care worker set out in this consultation until later in 2005.
7. Qualified social workers were the first group to be registered by the GSCC and they need to be registered before the legal restriction, protection of title, comes into force on 1 April 2005. Social workers can call 0845 070 0630 for an application form.
8. 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.