Maurice Bateman and Corinne May-Chahal, joint interim chairs of the College of Social Work, have released this statement about the Department of Health's decision to abolish the General Social Care Council:
"It is important that the College of Social Work, as the national voice for the profession, is fully involved in consultations to establish future arrangements for the regulation of the profession. These arrangements must take into account the particular demands of social work and the settings in which social work is practiced.
"Social work will comprise a large proportion of the work of the new regulatory organisation and the College will expect to see this reflected in its governance and practice."
Reading between the lines, the College development team (much like the rest of the sector) was not involved in or consulted about the decision to transfer the GSCC's functions to the Health Professions Council. Yet one of the College's main functions going forwards will be to represent the social work profession in discussions with policy makers in government. How is it to do this if it's not at the table in the first place?
What do you think should be the main functions of the College? Take part in the consultation
Welcome to the world of unregulated professional practice. Health visitors have been deregulated since the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting was replaced by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in 2002. Since then, training programmes have collapsed in some universities because the NHS didn't fund places on programmes for a qualification which didn't exist any more. The numbers of properly qualified HVs have also fallen unchecked as older staff retired and others left because of the resulting massive and unsafe workloads.
Unsurprisingly, working conditions are now unsafe in many areas where needs are highest. Middle class parents can use Netmums and private services, but the most needy have no access beyond a token birth visit.
If you don't regulate a profession, you can't set standards for initial membership or practice competencies so you can't do much about protecting the public from 'bad apples' and unqualified staff trying to cope with decisions they're not equipped to handle.