Workforce Top Of The Agenda In Options For Excellence Report

The high priority given to developing the social care workforce in the Options for Excellence report has been welcomed by the GSCC, the body responsible for regulating the workforce. The General Social Care Council (GSCC) says the report is a further step towards developing the workforce and welcomes the vision of a trained and trusted workforce that it contains. It said the report is significant recognition of the importance of social care workers to improving standards of care for service users.

The GSCC will be co-ordinating one of the key features of the report – a major review of the roles and tasks of social workers. Working with the Children’s Workforce Development Council, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, Skills for Care, and the Social Care Institute for Excellence, the review will focus on England and will draw on earlier work by the GSCC and similar studies in Scotland and Wales.

GSCC Chair Rodney Brooke, said: “Options for Excellence is good news for social care and for the workforce. It is good to see the contribution of the people who work in social care recognised in such a major report. It provides a valuable contribution to the debate about the future of social care.

“We are pleased to co-ordinate this important review of the roles and tasks for social workers and look forward to working closely with Children’s Workforce Development Council, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, Skills for Care, and the Social Care Institute for Excellence.”

The review of the roles and tasks of social workers will clarify the unique tasks that social workers carry out and will build on the Looked after Children’s Green Paper which talked about the role of social workers as “lead professionals.”

The GSCC will be developing the review with the input of a reference group drawn from the sector including the British Association of Social Workers and Unison. Consulting with service users will also be a key part of the process.