Legal title is welcomed

The announcement by community care minister Stephen Ladyman that
“social worker” is to become a legally protected title is good
news.

It is the beginning of saying that the term actually means
something, and it is a further step along the road to a mature and
accountable profession.

No longer will the media be able to blame abuse and errors
committed by caretakers or unqualified care assistants and the like
on “bungling social workers” as they so often have done in the
past.

The new move, along with initiatives such the Social Care Institute
of Excellence, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the
General Social Care Council code of conduct and register of
professionals, all help to provide a framework to improve the
status of social work and promote public confidence.

The next task is to persuade the estimated 55,000 qualified
professionals who have yet to register that they need to get on
with it. Otherwise, the April 2005 deadline is not going to be met.
So have you and your colleagues signed up yet? And if not, what’s
stopping you?