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Spot checks will ensure registered social workers keep up with learning and development from April 2006, the General Social Care Council promised.

Chief executive Lynne Berry said the GSCC would ask selected social workers to prove they were recording their learning.

Social workers in England have to keep their skills up to date with 90 hours' post-registration training and learning over three years.

But in another session Steve Trevillion, the GSCC's head of social work education and training, said guidance for social workers on post-registration training was "slim" and would be reviewed and refined.

Director of regulation Heather Wing said the GSCC was not "prescriptive" about what constituted learning and wanted to be "flexible" and "inclusive".

Learning outcomes must be relevant to the role of social workers and be measurable and recorded.

Within that framework a range of learning is acceptable, from private reading and study to working for a post-qualifying award. Other activities might include shadowing a colleague or undertaking research.


One delegate asked whether attending a workshop on growing beansprouts counted as post-registration training and learning as it could improve workers' well-being.

"There is no straightforward answer to that," said Trevillion, although he pointed out that the guidance review would set limits on what learning was eligible.

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