by John Davies
Social work needs a regulatory body but, in its current form, the General Social Care Council is failing to represent the profession.
Since 2005 I and every other social worker in England have been registered with the General Social Care Council (GSCC). Registering with them involves sending in details of our training, disciplinary and criminal record and the £30 fee. Most qualifi ed social workers, I am sure, hope that this is the extent of their involvement.
As a trade unionist I had involvement with the GSCC when a Unison member I represented was the subject of a conduct hearing. This is the nightmare come true for social workers: a team of lawyers scrutinising your practice or what you did outside work.
I agree that social work should have a regulatory body but the GSCC, in its current form, cannot be said to represent social workers even though we are registered with it. Other regulatory bodies, such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), are at least in part elected by the professionals they represent. The mental health nurses in the team in which I work can elect representatives on to the NMC. Why should it be different for the social workers who work with them?
The fact that we are newcomers to regulation by a professional body should not mean that we have no control over it. You would hope that institutions would become more democratic over time rather than less. It seems this does not apply to regulatory bodies set up by the government.
Social work is a highly contentious type of work, demonstrated not least by the Baby P case.
The right-wing press do not like the provision of social welfare and hence attack social workers as a means of undermining it. For instance, when I read Richard Littlejohn's writing about social workers in The Sun and now in the Daily Mail, I always think he is characterising us as useless, misguided "do-gooders" because he wants to attack the people we serve as being undeserving of the services we provide and prove that they would be better off without services.
The GSCC, as it is now, cannot represent us properly. In the present climate of social welfare "reforms", funding cuts and attacks in the press, we need an organisation that will speak for us. The GSCC should be run by an elected body and social care workers who are registered should be demanding "one social care worker, one vote".
John Davies is a social worker and assistant branch secretary for Unison's Tower
Hamlets branch in east London
Hi John,
The NMC has actually changed the make up of it's governing Council recently in line with the reccommendations in the White Paper: Trust, Assurance and Safety. Members have been appointed to the group based on their skills and qualities. There is equal representation between lay members and nurses and midwives.
There's a bit more about this on our website if you are interested - http://www.nmc-uk.org/aArticle.aspx?ArticleID=3476
Thanks,
Sophy
An issue for us social workers and for the GSCC is that the GSCC Chair and Chief Executive are not social workers and do not have social care backgrounds. They are excellent people in their own right, but would that be acceptable to any other group of professionals, eg Nusrses and doctors?
I think John is spot on with his analysis that social workers are not valued because we work with people who are not valued and who much of the population do not want to know about (altho any of us could find ourselves in the situation where we needed some social work support).