Allegations against social workers form bulk of regulator cases

The Health and Care Professions Council reports that it received 733 complaints against social workers in 2012/13

Health and Care Professions Council

Social workers accounted for 44 of fitness-to-practise cases handled by the Health and Care Professions Council in 2012/13, despite making up just 27 per cent of those on its register.

The HCPC’s annual report says it handled 733 cases questioning the fitness to practise of social workers in England between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013. This figure included the cases it inherited from the General Social Care Council on 1 August 2012.

Most of the cases originated with members of the public, who made 341 allegations against social workers.

Employers were the next largest group of complainants with 176 allegations, followed by 101 self-referrals from social workers themselves.

Due to the transfer of cases from the GSCC to the HCPC, the annual report lacks complete data on how many of the 733 cases were deemed to have a ‘case to answer’ and referred to a hearing.

However, it notes that 83 per cent of cases inherited from the GSCC were referred to a hearing. This, the report notes, is “significantly higher” than the 58 per cent figure for all of the 16 professions regulated by the HCPC.

More from Community Care

One Response to Allegations against social workers form bulk of regulator cases

  1. Vivien November 12, 2013 at 9:52 pm #

    Whilst there is some unforgivable behaviour by Social workers it is self evident that by the very nature of their work (often not welcomed by service users) they are much more likely to receive complaints.