General Social Care Council
Protecting the public by requiring high standards of professional education, conduct and practice of all social workers
Education and training
Education and training
The General Social Care Council (GSCC) is granted powers under the Care Standards Act 2000 to make rules under which social work training courses are approved and to produce lists of approved courses.
The Care Standards Act (Part 4 Section 63) states:
‘A course for persons who wish to become social workers shall not be approved under this section unless the Council considers that it is such as to enable persons completing it to attain the required standard of proficiency in relevant social work.’
The Approval of courses for the social work degree rules 2002 and the Approval of post-qualifying courses rules 2005 set out the legal basis for our approval of courses.
Since 2003, only candidates who have successfully completed either an approved undergraduate or postgraduate social work degree course, are eligible to apply for registration as a Qualified Social Worker.
Social work courses
Search our directory of approved social work courses across the UK
Useful documents
Popular pages
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Social workers qualified outside the UK application forms
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Knowledge assessment
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Council meeting November 2011
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