Government Announces Domiciliary Care Workers To Join Register

The General Social Care Council (GSCC) has welcomed today’s announcement by the Government to open the Social Care Register to domiciliary care workers and managers.

The announcement was made at the General Social Care Council annual conference today (15 February 2007) by Ivan Lewis MP, the Minister for Care Services, Department of Health.

Rodney Brooke, Chair of the General Social Care Council said: “Today the Government made a further commitment to raising professional standards and increasing public protection. The opening of the register to domiciliary care workers will mark a significant change in care services where social care workers are recognised for the unique contribution they make to society.

“We will see the benefits of a well trained and regulated workforce being extended to the 1.6 million people who use services. We are encouraged by the level of support registration of domiciliary and residential care workers has received from across the sector. We now look forward to taking this work forward and making registration for these groups a reality.”

The GSCC submitted recommendations to the Government in July 2006 about how to take forward registration of the next groups of social care workers following a GSCC led consultation with the sector.

Other speakers at the GSCC annual conference included Ian Loynes, Chief Executive Southampton Centre for Independent Living, Baroness Estelle Morris, Chair of the Children’s Workforce Development Council and Martin Green, Chief Executive of the English Community Care Association.

The Social Care Register enables people who use social care services and the public to check that social care workers are trained, accountable and of good character. Social workers and social work students who join the Social Care Register make a commitment to high standards of practice and are bound by the Code of Practice for Social Care Workers. Registrants are required to keep their skills and knowledge up to date by completing post-registration training and learning activities throughout their career which is aligned with renewing their registration with the GSCC.

Currently there are over 90,000 social workers and student social workers on the Social Care Register.

The annual conference entitled Professionalism, Protection, Pride represented what the GSCC aims to achieve and what it stands for within the social care sector.