MPs urge Department of Health to speed up registration of care staff

MPs have called on the government to urgently fast-track
domiciliary care workers onto the social care register.

The recommendation was one of 40 made by the health select
committee following its investigation into elder abuse. It said
plans not to include domiciliary care workers in the next wave of
staff to sign up to the register alongside residential child care
workers and managers of care homes were “unacceptable.”

“We are especially concerned that service users may be placed at
risk from day-to-day contact with unregistered care workers, a
small minority of whom may be abusive, working with them on a
one-to-one, unsupervised basis,” the report states.

The committee also called for the relaxing of entry requirements to
the register for domiciliary care staff so that completion of a
three-day induction course would be sufficient for initial
inclusion, with NVQ level 2 in care obtained by the time they
re-register three years later.

But the Department of Health believes staff should get NVQ level 2
before registering, although no final decision has been made.
However, there are doubts over the availability of NVQ level 2
courses.

A spokesperson for the General Social Care Council said it was for
the government to decide who would be included in the second wave
of registration but added that a recent risk assessment of
different social care professionals had identified domiciliary care
workers as a priority group. 

Other recommendations

• Establish a clear definition of elder abuse.
• Review care home residents’ medication every three months, with
  other older people aged over-75 being reviewed every six to 12
  months.
• Introduce elder abuse awareness training for care workers and
  open up the register to care workers employed via direct
  payments.
• Establish a mandatory requirement for every council to set up a
  vulnerable adult protection committee.
• Clarify requirements for GPs to check the cause of death of
  care home residents.