Thursday, 25 August 2005 00:00

Managers of services providing residential care for children and young people have been invited to register with the regulatory body for social service workers, the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).

Registration is a major part of the drive for higher standards in social services and will bring this workforce in line with their professional colleagues. Nursing, medicine and teaching are all regulated professions and workers have to register with their own regulatory bodies to be able to work in their field. Now social service workers have to do the same.

Registration will increase the protection of people who use social services, helping employers to ensure that only suitable people are employed and retained in the social service workforce. Action can be taken against the small minority of the workforce whose behaviour is not up to the standard required in social service work.

To register, a worker must satisfy a number of criteria. These include holding the appropriate qualifications for the job they do and being able to give evidence of good character. Where residential child care workers do not hold the appropriate qualifications they may be registered subject to the condition that they achieve them within a specified period of time, normally the three years until re-registration.

The SSSC opened the Register of Social Service Workers in Scotland on 1 April 2003 and is responsible for phasing in the registration of 130,000 social service workers over the next few years. Social workers were the first group to register followed by students on the new social work honours and postgraduate courses and Care Commission Officers. Supervisors in residential child care will begin to register from October 2005 and other residential child care workers will begin in July 2006.

Morag Alexander, Convener of the SSSC said:

“Establishing a register of people who work in social services increases protection for those who use social services and also represents a major achievement for this sector. Opening the register to residential child care workers is the latest stage of our planned timetable for registration as we move towards the development of a competent, confident and valued social service workforce.”

Jennifer Davidson, Director of the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care commented:

“The registration of the residential child care workforce is a vital step in ensuring that residential services for children and young people are of the highest professional quality, and effectively meet children and young people's needs within a nurturing and supportive environment. Residential child care managers play a critical role in ensuring that vulnerable young people, and the staff caring for them, are empowered to develop and thrive in the best possible conditions.”

-ENDS-

Media contact:

Nicky Scott
Senior Communications Officer
01382 207261
07766 133 243