Care staff will not need qualifications

Home and residential care workers will not require a qualification to register with the General Social Care Council, under proposals due to be published next month.

The plans, trailed at last week’s annual GSCC conference, would require care workers to pass their 12-week induction programme before joining the register.

The GSCC will consult next month on plans to register the approximately 750,000 home and residential care workers, many of whom lack relevant qualifications.

GSCC policy adviser Kate McMullen told the conference: “If we ask for a qualification, that may exclude a certain number of people in the workforce.”

However, the GSCC will suggest that training should be a condition of re-registration, which would happen after six years, rather than three, as is the case for social workers.

This could involve either an NVQ or a certain number of hours of training and learning.

The GSCC will also propose charging a fee for registration with   rates based on ability to pay.

It will also ask whether direct payment users’ personal assistants should be put on the register at this stage, though such a move would require primary legislation.

The register is likely to open for care workers in April 2007.