Thousands of social workers yet to register as deadline looms

Almost a third of English social workers have not applied for
registration with the General Social Care Council (GSCC) – with
only one week to go before the 1 December deadline,
writes Craig Kenny.

The GSCC had received 30,000 applications to join the register
by 23 November, leaving another 14,000 forms outstanding.

Applications which arrive later than 1 December  are not
guaranteed to be processed in time for next April, when
registration becomes a legal requirement.

The GSCC reported an eleventh-hour upsurge in applications this
month, with 2,400 in the first week of November.

“Applications are flooding in now”, a GSCC
spokesperson said. “Since the publicity in October, some
authorities which didn’t put many social workers thorough
have made tremendous leaps forward. Some employers have been
stockpiling applications.”

But despite dedicated teams to process the forms, sheer weight
of numbers is slowing down the registering process, said the
spokesperson.

“We cannot make any guarantees to people who don’t
get the forms in by 1 December”, she added.

The GSCC said it was too soon to consider sanctions for
employees who miss the deadline.