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The new social work register was launched at the beginning of last month.

The General Social Care Council, which regulates social services staff, will run the register. Staff registering will have to pay a fee of £30 but some councils, such as Greenwich in south east London, are considering paying the fee for their social workers.
Currently, registration is voluntary but the GSCC hopes that by 2005 it will be a compulsory requirement for all social workers to register.

The GSCC aims to register all social workers within 18 months. After that it hopes to register 60,000 social care workers a year and aims to register everyone working in social care – an estimated 1.5 million workers. Liberal Democrat social care spokesperson Paul Burstow said that the rate of registration meant 20 years would elapse before the 1.5 million workers would be registered. The government rejected this and added that every member of the workforce was now required to abide by the social care code of conduct introduced last September.

The first organisations at which social workers will be registering are Hampshire Council and Children’s charities Barnardo’s and NSPCC.