CC Live: Call for only practising social workers to be registered

Academics and managers should not be registered as social workers if they no longer practise, Peter Beresford, chair of user group Shaping Our Lives told Community Care LIVE today.

Beresford said registered social workers should face a regular assessment of practice to retain their status, a point backed by British Association of Social Workers chief executive Ian Johnston, in a session on the future of social work.

Beresford said: “An academic is an academic, a manager is a manager and a practitioner is a practitioner. You can’t have academics or practitioners speaking for practitioners.”

Earlier, Owen Davies, head of policy and development at the General Social Care Council, had called on practitioners to respond to the GSCC’s consultation on the roles and tasks of social work, which closes on 12 June.

He said a new definition of social work was needed to give practitioners “a banner to rally behind”, to ensure social work played its rightful roles in public services and give service users an idea of what they can expect and demand from social workers.

Further information
Shaping Our Lives

General Social Care Council

Contact the author
 Mithran Samuel