Employers’ responsibilities

If you are a social services department, a service registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), and further types of services, you will be expected to be in a position to comply with the Code of Practice for Employers of Social Care Workers. This page provides some practical information to help you meet them.

You could be doing the following important things now:

1. Use the code for employers as a 'tick list' for a comprehensive audit of your policies.
2. In larger organisations, make sure relevant senior colleagues such as your human resources manager, your training manager and your elected members or board are aware of the codes and their potential impact on your organisation. In smaller organisations, make sure all your senior colleagues are aware of the codes and their potential impact.
3. Ensure that you order enough copies for all your staff, make sure they have received them, and try to have a session where you discuss the issues.
4. You should introduce the codes to new staff at induction and have a discussion with them then about what they mean. The codes contain nothing that cannot be put into practice straight away by social care workers.
5. The codes can be used in the performance appraisal process as a measurable target for staff and managers. Incorporating the codes into people's work plans and objectives will be a good way of getting them to think about the codes.
6. Get staff to carry the credit card-sized codes around with them and ask staff to explain to service users what the codes are, at an appropriate moment.
7. People who use services should have access to the codes, which are available for download and to order by post from this website.