Three new senior managers have been appointed to the General Social Care Council (GSCC), which regulates social workers and their education and training.
The news follows the announcement of Penny Thompson, a trained social worker and former Chief Executive of the London Borough of Hackney, as the new Chief Executive.
Michael Andrews will take up the post of Director of Regulatory Operations, overseeing social work registration and conduct complaints, investigations and hearings and legal services. He was previously Director of Scrutiny and Quality at the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE), which oversees the work of the nine regulatory bodies for health professionals. Before his most recent post at CHRE, Michael was the Fitness to Practise Manager. He has also worked for the General Medical Council and Ofsted.
Sherry Malik, a qualified social worker is joining the organisation as Director of Strategy and Social Work Education. She leaves her post as Corporate Director of Strategy and Performance at the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), where her brief included business planning, service user engagement and quality assurance. Prior to Cafcass, she held positions at the Audit Commission, NCH (now Action for Children) and managed children’s services in a number of local authorities, including Hertfordshire County Council where she was Head of Children’s Services.
Stephen Williams has been appointed as the Director of Corporate Resources to oversee finance, HR, procurement, facilities management and IT. He was formerly Director of Finance at the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) where he had been since 2005. His long career in finance includes senior positions at the Met Office and English Heritage amongst others. The Directors will join the GSCC in April and May.
Penny Thompson, who recruited to the posts, said:
“I’m delighted to have recruited candidates of such high calibre and I’m looking forward to working with my new team to strengthen the vital work of the GSCC in protecting the public and ensuring a highly trained workforce.
“Their wealth of experience will prove extremely valuable to the organisation and to the sector more widely, as it moves forward with the challenging programme of reform set out by the Social Work Task Force.”
Chair of the GSCC, Rosie Varley, added:
“I’m so pleased to be able to announce these excellent appointments, just weeks after announcing Penny Thompson as Chief Executive.
“I’d like to take the opportunity to extend my deepest gratitude to our interim team who have worked enormously hard in putting GSCC on a firmer footing. With their work as a solid foundation, and with such an expert senior management team, I am confident that the GSCC will go from strength to strength.”
The new directors replace an interim executive management team consisting of Interim Chief Executive Paul Snell, Hilary Lloyd who leads the regulation function, corporate resources director David Clark and John Fraser, who has responsibility for strategy and social work education.