The General Social Care Council has welcomed the social care and health White Paper as a positive boost for better services for people. The White Paper, published today (30 January 2006), also flags up the important role the GSCC plays in raising standards in social care.

The GSCC is the regulator of 1.5 million social care workers in England. It has registered more than 75,000 social workers so far and is charged with registering the rest in the coming years. The White Paper (Our health, our care, our say) highlights the vital role the regulator can play in supporting Options for Excellence through workforce planning and by making clear the specific roles and tasks of social workers.

GSCC chair Rodney Brooke said: “Social workers deal with vulnerable people in situations of ambiguity, uncertainty and risk. We welcome the importance the White Paper attaches to the role of the social care workforce in delivering even better services. Social workers have a critical part to play in helping people to access personalised services working with their colleagues in health. They are trained to work with other professionals in difficult circumstances.

“Social workers and care workers make a vital contribution to the health and well being of people and communities and have a major part to play in developing services. They will welcome the emphasis on community-based prevention outlined in the White Paper.

“It is also great to see that the profile of social care will get a boost with the appointment of a board level person responsible for social care at the Department of Health. That is very good news for social care and for the future. We look forward to working with the Government to deliver the ambitions of the White Paper.”

One of the key features of the white paper is integration. The work of the GSCC in regulating social care workers in different settings will help ensure that standards continue to improve as integration grows.