The General Social Care Council has announced that it will consult on whether personal assistants employed by direct payment recipients should be registered.

This is a very difficult area with the many in the service user movement suggesting that compulsory registration - which is likely to involve undergoing a Criminal Records Bureau and having to meet minimum training requirements - curtails their freedom to employ who they wish. Against that range those who suggest that there are not only adult protection issues but workforce quality ones to take into account - particularly given estimates from Skills for Care that the number of PAs may increase ninefold over the next two decades and that PAs' current access to training is limited.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the first round of this battle - if a battle this is - has been won by the service user empowerment side of the argument - the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 excludes PAs from the vetting and barring scheme that will be introduced next year. In Scotland, the opposite happened. The Protection of Vulnerable Groups Act 2007 gives councils the right to withdraw a direct payment from a user if their PA does not undergo an enhanced disclosure check.