Part of our role as the regulatory body for social care in England is to regulate and promote high standards in all qualifying and post-qualifying social work education. We do this by:

setting standards for education;
approving courses; and
carrying out inspections to ensure that the education offered in England is of good quality and consistent at both degree and post-qualifying level.

The GSCC played a key role in the introduction of the degree in social work in 2003. We have ensured that social work enjoys the longer training periods associated with degree-level professional courses. More recently, we have introduced a revised post-qualifying framework for social workers to continue their professional development.

We ensure quality by providing advice and guidance to universities and colleges when they seek to get a new course approved. In addition, once a course is up and running, the GSCC will inspect and report on it each year to make sure that standards are being met.