New report on raising standards in Welsh social care published
The Care Council for Wales’s annual report on its regulatory work is now available on the website.
Raising Standards in Social Care: A Report on the Professional Regulatory Work of the Care Council for Wales 2015-16 provides an overview of the trends from the Register of Social Care Workers, as well as the Care Council’s work in setting, maintaining and improving the standards of the registered social care workforce.
The report found that the social care Register is stable with only small differences in the numbers of people leaving and joining the Register, and in the numbers of people referred to the Care Council for investigation. The key findings from the 2015-16 report are:
- 11,564 people were included on the Register of Social Care Workers on 31 March 2016 – an increase of 20 people from 2014-15
- 1,315 left the Register – a fall of 2.4% from 2014-15
- The largest number of leavers came from the residential child care sector
- 100% of applications to register were received online
- 97% of applications by people to renew their registration were received online
- 193 registrants were referred to the Care Council’s Fitness to Practise team – down by 8% from 2014-15
- 70% of referrals were made by employers
- 0.22% of registrants appeared before a final hearing – down by 0.02% from 2014-15
- 25 final hearings were held – of those, 17 people (0.1%) were removed from the Register
The Care Council uses this evidence to inform its work in reviewing and developing standards and qualifications, as well as in producing guidance to support the workforce.
Gerry Evans (pictured), Director of Regulation and Professional Standards at the Care Council, said: “This report shows only a very small percentage of registrants are referred to the Care Council and significantly fewer appear before a Fitness to Practise hearing. However when a hearing has taken place, the actions or inaction of those registrants can be seen to have consequences for the quality of care and support people receive, as well as seriously undermining the reputation of the social care sector.
“The numbers on the Register are stable, although there continues to be a significant turnover of residential child care workers. Registration for domiciliary and care home workers is currently voluntary. But it will be possible to monitor the extent of turnover in these sectors, which is reported to be high, when the Register for these groups opens and becomes mandatory – in 2020 for domiciliary care workers and in 2022 for care home workers.”
