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The warnings are becoming dire. Unless action is taken soon, apparently, many social workers who turn up for work on 1 April next year will find their path blocked by a General Social Care Council official who will be sending all unregistered staff straight back home.

The GSCC is becoming very agitated about the whole issue of registration and it has now engaged in a naming and shaming exercise to out those local councils deemed to be dragging their feet. But has social care's regulatory body got its facts right?


One local council to incur the GSCC's wrath is Rotherham, castigated for registering just three of a possible 840 social workers. In fact, as the authority has pointed out, it has only 309 staff with a social work qualification; all of them have the forms and they say they are on course for meeting the deadline.

By setting a cut-off point of 1 December and offering no incentive for early registration, the council must take part of the blame if people are leaving it to the last minute and causing a log jam.