Comments from social workers on GSCC registration

Comments from social workers on GSCC
registration:

• I haven’t asked for the GSCC and I don’t
know of anyone who has. Sounds like another imposed pain to flog
us. It’s not that I’ve got anything to hide – I just
want to be able to work within agency guidelines and not be ordered
to do training or forced to pay for a quango.

• The GSCC may make diversity in social care a thing of
the past as it sounds like a move to standardise everything.

• I think that there should be more publicity about the
GSCC requirements. Employers should be more accountable in respect
of helping staff keep their practice up to date and should assist
in fee payment. I would like to know more about the disciplinary
hearings and the thresholds for these.

• The NMC appears to work well, and the GSCC sounds
similar.

• I am a qualified nurse working in social care so I am
used to having to register etc – I think it is a good thing that
people delivering social care should be subject to more scrutiny
and accountability

• Long overdue, and I wholeheartedly support the work of
the GSCC and look forward to the conduct committee being effective
in ensuring social care staff are accountable for their
practice.

• It is management that often needs to be called to
account, not individual workers. For example, it is management that
cancel staff training days (CPD) – or management who fail to inform
of policy or practice issues. I would hate this new system to mean
that individual staff can be blamed for agency failures.

Also, having recently been a witness at an NMC hearing, this
took ages from the misdeed to the hearing and ultimate
deregistration. In the meanwhile, the nurse responsible who had
sexually abused a vulnerable adult, carried on working. So where is
the protection with a system that takes ages. I also think the
agencies should be responsible for registering their workers.
Deduct the money from pay if they have to but take responsibility.
Then no-one could forge registration etc.

• I feel local authorities have been confused about the
implementation/registration requirements – i.e. not sure who should
sign off completed packs.

• In promoting social care as a profession The GSCC should
look at the following issues: clinical supervision, staff support
systems and pay – all these areas need to be addressed to encourage
new recruits and sustain existing professionals.

• The registration process is complicated in that it
requires a great deal of information over and above what could be
deemed reasonable. It is therefore a discriminatory process
particularly for women. Whilst I agree training and practice should
be kept updated, I disagree that it should be about what training
has been undertaken. Annual staff appraisal might be more
informative. It feels as if training is being undertaken for the
sake of it whilst experiences that one might learn from are not
being recognised. I resent having to pay a registration fee for
something that is a requirement of my job.

• I am a Spanish social worker, and I am actually not
allowed to register as yet. Besides registering as such does not
mean they are going to filter “good from bad” social workers. I
think that for example in my case, being a locum it is very
difficult to achieve the training aims.

• As a qualified social worker with an overseas
qualification who has worked in this country for four years without
having my qualification formally recognised I was shocked to find
out how much more expensive it is for those with overseas
qualifications. I believe that our organisation should pay for
registration however the union are still arguing this.

• They need to clarify what needs to happen for those of
us who are qualified social workers but are no longer frontline
practitioners e.g. in training and development. Also I would be
happier if an appeals procedure was outlined at the same time as
outlining penalties for non compliance.

They also need to clarify what the 90 hours of CPD can cover. I
have heard recently that the child care award/PQ would not count?
Why on earth not? That is CPD for those staff who only have the
diploma! They need to be very careful that in trying to regulate
the workforce and improve standards they don’t set benchmarks that
are totally unrealistic and hence not achievable. If someone is
undertaking the CCA award they are not going to be doing much else
in that same time period to meet the CPD requirements. That is the
reality of frontline practice.

• I do not believe that the register is a reasoned
response to concerns about conduct and suitability. It seems to be
a bureaucratic response to perceived failings rather than one of
raising competence and professionalism.

• My own belief is that we should insist on a minimum
qualification for anyone who works in social care, with vulnerable
people. I think that it is a right every user should have, to have
experienced staff supporting them. I totally agree that standards
are important and should be maintained.

• The CPD monitoring requirement is too “relaxed” – it
needs firming up!!