Social Care Register

The Social Care Register was launched on 1 April 2003 and represents a significant step forward in improving standards of public protection.  It will also raise the status of the social care workforce, bringing it in line with other public service professions. 

The register will ensure that unsuitable people are not employed or retained within the workforce.  The public will be entitled to expect and check that everyone registered:

• is a suitable person to work in social care;
• is physically fit to do his/her job;
• has a required level of training; and
• will adhere to the GSCC’s code of practice.

In February 2004, the Government announced that all social workers must be registered with the GSCC before the legal restriction protection of title comes into force on 1 April 2005. The register currently contains details of over eighty thousand social workers and over twelve thousand social work students.

In November 2004, the GSCC announced that following a sector-wide consultation, social care managers and frontline staff in direct contact with service users should be the next groups to join the Social Care Register. These finding were presented to the Department of Health who will announce the next groups in summer 2005.

On the 7 February 2006, the Government announced that the GSCC were to take forward the registration of domiciliary and care home workers, following a period of consultation with the social care sector.

The current plans are to extend the register to domiciliary care workers and their managers later in 2008, with further extension to residential care workers to follow later.

It will take several years to finish the process of registration and, it is expected that, over time, social care employers will recruit only registered staff. 

When extended to include all social care workforce, the GSCC’s register of 1.5 million strong workforce has the potential to become the largest in Europe .  

Social workers and social work students:

• annual fee for registered social workers is £30;
• social work students pay a reduced annual fee of £10;

• registration for qualified social workers is initially for a three-year period with renewal of registration dependent on the satisfactory completion of specific continuing professional development.

Every registered social worker will need to complete 90 hours or 15 days of post-registration training and learning (PRTL) during every three-year registration period in order to renew their registration. There is a wide range of activities an registered social worker can do to meet the learning requirement. This may include reading specialist and trade literature, attending training courses or seminars, shadowing a senior practitioner, teaching or studying for a qualification.