The Register of Social Service Workers in Scotland opened on 1 April 2003.

Registration is a major part of the drive for higher standards in social services and is bringing this workforce in line with other 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 will have to do the same.

To register a worker must satisfy the criteria for registration. This includes holding the appropriate qualifications for the job they do and being able to evidence good character.

Applicants for registration who do not hold the required qualifications may, if they meet all the other eligibility criteria for registration eg evidence of ‘good character', be granted registration subject to the condition that they achieve the required qualifications within a specified period - normally their first three year period of registration.

The Scottish Government decides which groups of workers the SSSC will register and in what order the SSSC will register them. A formal Commencement Order is laid before the Scottish Parliament to open each part of the Register.

To find out further information about the groups of workers that the SSSC is registering, click the link below:

• Social worker
• Social work student
• Care Commission Officer
• Residential child care worker
• Residential care worker for adults
• Day care worker for children, for example in a nursery
• Day care worker for adults
• Housing support worker
• Worker in a school care accommodation service
• Other social service worker