News

Comments from social workers on GSCC registration:

• I haven’t asked for the GSCC and I don’t know of anyone who has. Sounds like another imposed pain to flog us. It’s not that I’ve got anything to hide - I just want to be able to work within agency guidelines and not be ordered to do training or forced to pay for a quango.

• The GSCC may make diversity in social care a thing of the past as it sounds like a move to standardise everything.

• I think that there should be more publicity about the GSCC requirements. Employers should be more accountable in respect of helping staff keep their practice up to date and should assist in fee payment. I would like to know more about the disciplinary hearings and the thresholds for these.

• The NMC appears to work well, and the GSCC sounds similar.

• I am a qualified nurse working in social care so I am used to having to register etc - I think it is a good thing that people delivering social care should be subject to more scrutiny and accountability

• Long overdue, and I wholeheartedly support the work of the GSCC and look forward to the conduct committee being effective in ensuring social care staff are accountable for their practice.

• It is management that often needs to be called to account, not individual workers. For example, it is management that cancel staff training days (CPD) - or management who fail to inform of policy or practice issues. I would hate this new system to mean that individual staff can be blamed for agency failures.

Also, having recently been a witness at an NMC hearing, this took ages from the misdeed to the hearing and ultimate deregistration. In the meanwhile, the nurse responsible who had sexually abused a vulnerable adult, carried on working. So where is the protection with a system that takes ages. I also think the agencies should be responsible for registering their workers. Deduct the money from pay if they have to but take responsibility. Then no-one could forge registration etc.

• I feel local authorities have been confused about the implementation/registration requirements - i.e. not sure who should sign off completed packs.

• In promoting social care as a profession The GSCC should look at the following issues: clinical supervision, staff support systems and pay - all these areas need to be addressed to encourage new recruits and sustain existing professionals.

• The registration process is complicated in that it requires a great deal of information over and above what could be deemed reasonable. It is therefore a discriminatory process particularly for women. Whilst I agree training and practice should be kept updated, I disagree that it should be about what training has been undertaken. Annual staff appraisal might be more informative. It feels as if training is being undertaken for the sake of it whilst experiences that one might learn from are not being recognised. I resent having to pay a registration fee for something that is a requirement of my job.

• I am a Spanish social worker, and I am actually not allowed to register as yet. Besides registering as such does not mean they are going to filter "good from bad" social workers. I think that for example in my case, being a locum it is very difficult to achieve the training aims.

• As a qualified social worker with an overseas qualification who has worked in this country for four years without having my qualification formally recognised I was shocked to find out how much more expensive it is for those with overseas qualifications. I believe that our organisation should pay for registration however the union are still arguing this.

• They need to clarify what needs to happen for those of us who are qualified social workers but are no longer frontline practitioners e.g. in training and development. Also I would be happier if an appeals procedure was outlined at the same time as outlining penalties for non compliance.

They also need to clarify what the 90 hours of CPD can cover. I have heard recently that the child care award/PQ would not count? Why on earth not? That is CPD for those staff who only have the diploma! They need to be very careful that in trying to regulate the workforce and improve standards they don't set benchmarks that are totally unrealistic and hence not achievable. If someone is undertaking the CCA award they are not going to be doing much else in that same time period to meet the CPD requirements. That is the reality of frontline practice.

• I do not believe that the register is a reasoned response to concerns about conduct and suitability. It seems to be a bureaucratic response to perceived failings rather than one of raising competence and professionalism.

• My own belief is that we should insist on a minimum qualification for anyone who works in social care, with vulnerable people. I think that it is a right every user should have, to have experienced staff supporting them. I totally agree that standards are important and should be maintained.

• The CPD monitoring requirement is too "relaxed" - it needs firming up!!