Deadline looms but a third outstanding

A third of English social workers had still not applied for
registration with the General Social Care Council just one week
before its 1 December deadline.

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

Applications that 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 that had not put
many social workers through have made tremendous leaps forward.
Some employers have been stockpiling applications.”

But, despite dedicated teams to process the forms, the sheer weight
of numbers was slowing down the process, the spokesperson warned.

But the GSCC insisted it was too soon to discuss possible sanctions
for employees who failed to register before the law changed in
April.

Meanwhile, most organisations are backing GSCC plans to focus on
front-line managers rather than domiciliary care workers in its
next registration drive.

Of 225 organisations consulted, 179 backed the plan. Of those who
disagreed with registering managers first, 14 were social services
departments and 19 were domiciliary care agencies.

The charity Action on Elder Abuse has campaigned for domiciliary
care staff to be given priority in registration because of concerns
over abuses of older people.

The GSCC was due to discuss results of the consultation earlier
this week.