“Ensuring public protection was my reason for joining GSCC last year, and it was a matter of extreme concern to me when we identified that there were serious problems in the management of our conduct work, resulting in a backlog of cases. This has resulted in the suspension of the Chief Executive.

Although we had already begun to diagnose the problems, and develop a comprehensive plan for addressing them, it was important for there to be an independent review of the conduct function and I am extremely grateful to the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence for undertaking this.

Their report helpfully sets out the problems that had come to light, and makes recommendations for strengthening the function. I am pleased that these are in line with the recovery plan that we have been working to for a number of months as a result of which we have now cleared the original backlog of cases, and are able to take prompt and appropriate action where we believe that social workers pose risks to public protection.

There is a lot of work still to do to get the conduct function onto a sustainable footing, but we now have greater clarity of focus and a platform to build from. I have invited the CHRE back next year to examine the progress made on our transformation plan, and I am confident that we will then be able to demonstrate that we are rigorously and robustly exercising our powers to hold social workers to account for their conduct.”

Download the CHRE report - PDF (307KB)