Welsh pragmatism wins staff plaudits

The British Association of Social Workers has welcomed the “pragmatic” stance taken by the Welsh assembly government towards the regulation of independent social workers doing adoption support work.

The assembly government confirmed this week that independent social workers supplying adoption support services under contract from councils do not need to register as adoption support agencies. They only need to do so if they are providing services as a company.

This contrasts with the situation in England, where many independent social workers have been told they must register with the Commission for Social Care Inspection as small adoption support agencies, even though they are already registered with the General Social Care Council.

BASW has warned this could force independent social workers from the field (Confusion over independent adoption support social workers: special report).

The association has yet to receive clarification on points it raised in a letter to the Department for Education and Skills in March.

It claimed independent social workers providing adoption support services had been given conflicting advice by the DfES and CSCI.