Registration put back six months

The social care register will be opened to domiciliary care workers in late 2007 or early 2008, the minister for care services announced today.

Ivan Lewis’s announcement, at the General Social Care Council annual conference, means the Department of Health has put back the next stage of registration by over six months. His predecessor, Liam Byrne, had announced last year that the register would open in stages to residential and domiciliary care workers from April 2007.

It also means the DH has rejected the GSCC’s call for children’s care home staff and managers to be registered alongside domiciliary care staff in the first wave of registration.