This weeks Community Care arrived with the headline “GSCC in Crisis” but surely the problem is much wider than just the GSCC and there needs to be a pause for thought about the way forward

Whilst the particular problems of the GSCC will mean a total reformation of that body it is unlikely to bring any immediate resolution to the question of care worker registration, the seeming lack of public support for the Green Paper proposals, pending financial constraints and overall public confidence in the system.

The issue of care worker registration is a very strange one, campaigners supporting it often site it as an important means of safeguarding yet all care workers will eventually (I use that term because the date seems to be forever being put back) have to be registered with the Independent Safeguarding Authority and only be able to get work if registered with them and are not barred from working with vulnerable adults. So in this instance there is very little difference in the conduct role of the GSCC. For those calling for the safeguarding of adults in their own home it is also worth remembering that levels of abuse by care workers are relatively low – 13% (albeit still unacceptable) compared to abuse by family members - 51% (Kings College London study2007). Further registration requirements for safeguarding purposes seem a little over the top.

The other side to the GSCC registration scheme is professional development and it is here, perhaps, some sort of rethink is necessary. The removal of a minimum NVQ requirement, the prospect of Train to Gain disappearing and pressure on costs means that staff training and development may be put to the bottom of the pile as always without any regulatory pressure on either employers or employees to force up training standards. Where registration depends on proving CPD there is an incentive for workers to demand training in order to maintain their registered status.

It should also be remember that managers of care homes and domiciliary care agencies are already registered with the Care Quality Commission and the current National Minimum Standards require an element of CPD, something also required in the draft Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations, this added to the ISA registration should surely be enough registration for managers of services.

What is needed now is an open review of the way forward for care registration, why it is needed and an analysis of the benefits versus the negatives.

The current consultation on the Green Paper on Care funding seems to have become a farcical exercise with very few positive comments being posted on the website, with both Gordon Brown and David Cameron announcing funding proposals at their Party Conferences and the clear lack of any relevance to disabled people in the paper. Perhaps the time has come to end the pretence of getting an immediate solution in place and the political parties need to put forward their full proposals so that we can debate and judge these prior to voting in the next Government in 2010.

Such proposals also need to be as up front as possible on how proposed spending constraints will impact the services available to vulnerable adults and children.

It does seem that social care is on a slippery slope at present and unless something is done soon public confidence will plummet lower, impacting on recruitment and therefore on delivering better lives for those who most need it.