Thorough and inclusive consultation events throughout England resulted in major improvements to the codes of practice for social care workers and employers.
The oversubscribed waiting list of more than 1,000 people for the six regional codes of practice consultation events gave us the first hint of the interest from people at all levels in social care. The focus of the events - at Exeter, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and London - was to hear about the General Social Care Council (GSCC), its role and responsibilities, to consult on the codes and to seek out ideas about how the GSCC can involve people who use services in its work.
At each event, as well as having lively and interesting debates, delegates were hugely helpful in making suggestions about how to improve the codes. Many acknowledged that registering appropriate and competent people to work in social care would help to raise the profile of the profession. We also visited over 130 people who use services, including older people, children, people in residential care, day care, people with mental health problems, and people with physical or learning disabilities.
In addition to the public consultation sessions, people were also invited to comment by completing online forms at a special consultation website. We also sent consultation packs by post. Up and until the end of March 2002, more than 15,000 people visited the website and three thousand packs were sent out on request. In total, nearly 10,000 consultation packs were distributed.
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