Managing Future Care Services

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Managing Future Care Services National Care
Forum 7 November 2005 Heather Wing Director of
Regulation General Social Care Council
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THE GSCC OUR ROLE

• The workforce regulator for social care covering
  whole sector with a lay-led Council to take
  decisions in the public interest.
• Set up and maintain the Social Care Register.
• Develop and promote the codes of practice for
  social care workers and employers.
• Investigate alleged misconduct of registered
  social care workers.
• Approve courses and qualifications in social work
  education and quality-assure.
• Pay student bursaries and grants to social work
  education and training providers.

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WHY IS REGULATION IMPORTANT TO THE PUBLIC?

• Over 1.5 million people use social care at any
  one time and times of vulnerability not always
  predictable
• Public support workforce regulation 93
  questioned believe social care workers should be
  checked and registered before they are allowed to
  practice.
• Public believe workforce regulation will improve
  standards and the level of public protection 90
  questioned by NOP
• Public need clarity on what a professional title
  means what you an expect from a doctor,
  nurse or social worker.

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GSCC PROGRESS IN PROMOTING QUALITY CARE

• Standards through the codes of practice for
  social care workers and their employers
• Registration confirms workers meet requirements
  on training, commit to high standards and are
  suitable to hold the responsibilities of being in
  the workforce
• Education and training promoting a trained
  workforce and ensuring social work education is
  of a consistently high standard.
• Conduct a mechanism to enforce good standards of
  practice

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THE CODES QUALITY STANDARDS FOR ALL

• The Codes of Practice for Social Care Workers and
  the Codes of Practice for Employers of Social
  Care Workers cover every member of staff and
  employer
• Over one and a half million requested and
  distributed
• Every care worker should have their own copy,
  available free of charge
• Available in over 30 different languages or
  formats
• These include specially developed version in
  pictures for those with learning disabilities and
  children
• Recent evaluation demonstrated high level of
  acceptance and use.
• ? Future challenge to embed codes and build
  understanding amongst sector and service
  users.

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CONSISTENTLY APPLYING STANDARDS THE CODES OF
PRACTICE
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REGISTRATIONPROMOTING A TRAINED WORKFORCE

• Registration helps build and embed training in
  the workforce.
• Minimum training and qualification criteria are
  set.
• Ensures training and qualifications meet
  recognised standards.
• Promotes ongoing training through requirement to
  undertake a defined level of ongoing training and
  learning.
• Supports compliance with the training
  requirements in the Code for Social Care Workers.
• Assists registered staff in obtaining support
  from employers to meet training requirements
  as set out in the employers code.

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REGISTRATION OF SOCIAL WORKERS

• Social Care Register opened in April 2003.
• All social workers must now be registered to use
  the legally protected title social worker.
• This ensures every social worker holds a
  recognised qualification, has passed rigorous
  checks and is accountable for high standards.
• 70,000 now registered
• Ongoing training a key part of registration so
  that registrants keep their skills up-to-date.

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MANAGING AN ACCOUNTABLE WORKFORCE

• In the future, greater sense of central
  accountability for standards of conduct and care
  amongst a registered workforce
• Regulation will restrict workforce to only those
  who are properly trained, committed to high
  standards and accountable.
• This will boost standards, public protection and
  public confidence.
• First refusals of registration, interim
  suspensions and conduct investigations are
  underway.

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FUTURE CHALLENGE REGISTRATION OF WIDER
WORKFORCE

• Potentially 1.4 million social care workers to be
  registered
• Government has committed to this and asked that
  domiciliary care workers and residential care
  workers are registered as a next priority.
• Covers around 750,000 staff in wide variety of
  roles and settings
• Most staff hold no relevant qualification
• Same principles as registration of qualified
  social workers eg. abiding by the codes, but
  cannot be implemented in same way
• Will take considerable preparation and time to
  roll out.

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FUTURE CHALLENGE PREPARING FOR REGISTRATION

• GSCC keen to learn from experience to date to
  implement registration in best way for employers,
  staff and people using services
• Scoping work underway
• Will involve consultations with sector on issues
  such as
• Timing
• Registration requirements such as training, fee
  levels and applications
• Definition of the groups, including possible
  inclusion of those in direct payment arrangements

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FUTURE CHALLENGE PREPARING FOR REGISTRATION
continued

• Requires work with Government on issues such as
  enforcement mechanisms
• Stakeholder consultation events and a stakeholder
  reference group to consider these issues.

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ISSUES FOR CONSULTATION AND FURTHER WORK

• What level of training should staff have before
  they can register?
• Induction training, new forms of induction
  training, qualification or other? Should this be
  specific to types of users staff work with?
• Should all residential and domiciliary care
  workers be registered together or should it be
  rolled out in turn?
• Should the requirements for all these staff be
  the same?
• Should people working in direct payments have the
  option/compulsion to register?

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ISSUES FOR CONSULTATION AND FURTHER WORK continued

• How should registration be required? By
  employers, by law or just best practice?
• What lessons from social worker registration
  should be learnt for wider registration?
• How can employers, workers and users best
  contribute to developing the registration process?

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THE FUTURE FOR ASSURING QUALITY IN A DIVERSE
WORKFORCE

• 1.4 million social care workers but bound by
  common standards the Code of Practice for
  Social Care Workers.
• 25,000 social care employers but sharing Code of
  Practice for Social Care Employers.
• The codes help identify social cares distinctive
  values.
• Shared commitment to training and skills climbing
  frame.
• Together, this boosts coherence for service
  users, job satisfaction and retention of social
  care workers.

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THE FUTURE FOR ASSURING QUALITY IN A DIVERSE
WORKFORCE

• Embedding the codes of practice in day-to-day use
• Developing registration requirements for the next
  groups that ensure high standards but are
  effective and workable
• Taking tough decisions around individual
  registrations and conduct and building acceptance
  of new responsibilities and accountability of the
  workforce
• Registering the wider workforce issues of
  volume of staff, diversity of roles and settings,
  straddling children and adults services
• Building a trained and trusted care workforce
  beyond Registered Social Workers.

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CONTACT THE GSCC

• Telephone [phone]
• Email info_at_gscc.org.uk
• Registration 0845 070 0630
• Email registration_at_gscc.org.uk
• Website www.gscc.org.uk