by Denise PlattLog onto the website of the General Medical Council (GMC). Pretty quickly you will read that "we protect patients by dealing firmly and fairly with serious concerns about doctors". The General Teaching Council says: "We work for children through teachers". Now look at the General Social Care Council website - you'll be hard pushed to find the words "protect the public" or any mention of people who use services on its home page or "about us" section.
The GSCC is now a quango in special measures. It has to restore the faith of the public and social workers that it does take the task of protecting the public seriously. It has six months to put right the serious failings identified by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) report.
Regulation of social workers is not an end in itself. It is there to ensure that the professionals who support individuals and families in the most vulnerable of circumstances work to the highest standards of competence and conduct. The regulator must be unequivocally clear that it has the people who rely on social work services as the focus of its attention, the core of all its activities.
A regulator must act firmly to take action when concerns about fitness to practice or conduct are raised. It is not only the public that demands this, social workers want it too. Professionals should be dealt with fairly, competently and with integrity.
A regulator needs to practice what it preaches and work to the highest ethical and regulatory standards in its own field. It should ensure that staff are properly trained and developed and that they are confident in their roles, properly equipped to do a difficult job.
Politicians need to take seriously the recommendations to move to a system of "fitness to practice". The GSCC needs a more sophisticated range of sanctions to intervene or support in a timely way when significant concerns about an individual's practice are raised.
And politicians should curb their reorganisation tendencies. Social workers support both individuals and families across age groups. Politicians should resolutely resist any temptation to create separate regulatory bodies for those who work in children's services and those who work in adult services.
This is not a good time for the social work regulator to be in trouble - the GSCC needs all the support we can give it at this time.
Dame Denise Platt is a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the Audit Commission. She was previously chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection
The General Medical Council is not a good aspirational model.
Fine words - as you say. In reality a grand old-boy's network, setting the standards for eminence based medicine, where a few bad apples hold the key to every door.