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Here’s what you need to know about the changes, or you can watch our video presentation with an overview of the changes at the bottom of the page.
No, you will not need to apply for registration again. We will make all the necessary changes and let you know when this happens. We will contact everyone on our Register to let you know your new Register part(s).
If you are already registered, we’ll move you to the new corresponding part of the Register.
For example, if you are registered as a practitioner in a day care of children service, we’ll move you to the part for ‘children and young people workforce’ with a service type of ‘day care of children service’ at the level of job role ‘practitioner’.
The Changes to the Register table shows the detail of the current and new Register parts.
No, your date of registration will stay the same. This is the date of your original registration if you have not been off the Register for any periods of time.
Your fee will be the same, based on the service type and level of job role of work you do. Your fee would only change if your role requires you to move to a different level of job role.
To maintain your registration, you must complete an annual declaration around the time of your registration date. You’ll be able to do this in your MySSSC account.
You’ll need to confirm your personal and employment details or provide updated details and pay your annual fee. This replaces the previous five yearly registration renewal.
No, you will only have to complete one annual declaration. When completing your annual declaration, we’ll ask you to review and update details relating to your different registrations and employment.
If you are already registered, the time you have to gain your qualification won’t change.
If you are working in a service registered to deliver care to adults and children, you’ll be registered on the social care workforce and the children and young people workforce parts of the Register. We’ll make these changes for everyone already on the Register.
Yes, the social worker Register part is for people who hold a recognised social work qualification but if you are working in a residential childcare service, you also need to register on the children and young people workforce part.
For most changes you would only need to tell us your new level of job role, any changes to your place of work and your new employer, if that also changes.
However, if you are moving from working with adults to children, for example, you would need to come off one part of the Register and apply for another.
In these circumstances you’d have three months from starting your new role to apply for the new Register part.
No, you will be registered on the social care workforce part. This includes people working in housing support, care at home, adult care home or adult day care.
You still need to tell us all the services you are working in.
We currently publish fitness to practise information on a separate part of the SSSC website from the Register. We want to improve the publicly available Register so information is easy to find, in one place and promotes our aim of protecting and upholding public confidence.
The table in the 'Changes to the Register search on the SSSC website' section below outlines the changes to the Register on our website.
From 3 June 2024 anyone starting a role that requires registration has three months to apply for registration. You should start your application as soon as possible so you're registered within the required six months.
| What we currently publish | What we will publish |
| Registration number | Registration number |
| Town of employment | Town of employment |
| Register part | Register part |
| Registration status | Service type and level of job role |
| Removed date (if applicable) | Registration status |
| Suspended from date (if applicable) | Removed date (if applicable) |
| Suspended to date (if applicable) | Suspended from date (if applicable) |
| Suspended to date (if applicable) | |
| Fitness to practise information currently published on another part of the website: Decisions www.sssc.uk.com/fitness-to-practise/decisions |
No. These parts of the Register will still get five years, if you are required to do two qualifications.
Any new registrant who is registered as a:
with no recognised qualification will have five years.
Anyone already holding a qualification which meets either practice, supervisor, management or academic requirements will have three years.
We’ve delayed the introduction of the three-year timescale to gain a qualification for registrants in the social care workforce until June 2025. This is in response to feedback about the pressures of such a large part of the workforce having to gain qualifications in a short space of time.
If you are already registered the time you have to gain your qualification won’t change. Three years will only apply to new people joining the Register.
If you have an acceptable reason for being unable to gain the qualification within the timescale, we can consider giving you more time. You can find more information about asking for longer here.
No, you can remain a support worker if your employer and you decide to remain at that level of job role.
The new practitioner level will allow organisations to employ workers carrying out the function of a practitioner role, which is in line with other groups on our Register. It will support career progression for those wishing to work at a practitioner level but who do not want to be a supervisor or manager.
The qualification requirement is similar to those for practitioners on other parts of the Register and our recognised benchmark qualifications, SVQ Social Services and Healthcare at SCQF level 7.
We’ll take a more flexible approach to qualifications for registration to allow people to move between social care and children and young people services without having to gain two different qualifications.
The standard qualification for workers in adult services is the SVQ Social Services and Healthcare and for workers in children’s services it’s the SVQ Social Services (Children and Young People) qualifications. We’ll now accept either of these qualifications for registrants working in both adult and children’s services.
We’ll ask registrants moving to another type of service to complete some extra learning, for example child or adult protection, as part of their CPL rather than doing another qualification.
We’re changing continuous professional learning (CPL) for registrants to focus on key skills and knowledge required depending on a registrant’s role and the stage of their career, for example induction or changing jobs. Registrants will need to cover core learning elements to meet the CPL requirements and we’re developing a new CPL website to help registrants find relevant learning opportunities.
We’re introducing return to practice requirements for social workers who have been out of practice and off the SSSC Register for more than two years. The requirements are a mix of supervised practice, informal and formal learning with a tiered approach depending on how long social workers have been out of practice. Returning social workers will have six months from registration to meet the return to practice requirements.
Read full details in the return to practice for social workers article.
We’ll publish the revised Codes of Practice on 1 May 2024 and they will take effect straight away. During our review most people told us they liked the simple and clear wording of the Codes, so we’ve only made changes where necessary.
See what’s changed in the Codes in our next step for the revised Codes article.
From 3 June we will only ask applicants which organisation they work for.
We will ask the person who endorses the application:
Employers may want to update anything they have relating to SSSC registration before we make the changes, so they are ready for 3 June. This could include:
We’ve developed an employer toolkit to help you prepare for the changes, including a presentation, poster and checklist. Get the employer toolkit here.
We’ll make the changes on 3 June 2024. This means we need to start making changes to our system behind the scenes so that we are ready. You won’t see anything different until we switch over but during the lead in time, we will need to stop some parts of the registration process. For example, we will stop applications and stop renewals as we prepare to make the changes (see ‘Can I still apply for registration’ and ‘What if I’m due to renew’ for details).
The last date for submitting registration applications is 10 April 2024 and you can apply until 5pm that day. If you don’t submit your application before the deadline you will need to start again when applications re-open on 3 June 2024. The system will not save partial applications, so please make sure you complete and submit your application before 10 April 2024.
The Care Inspectorate know about the changes and that we are stopping applications for a short period. The best way to remove any uncertainty about being able to work is to submit your application before 10 April 2024. Read the guidance on applications here.
We’ll be ready to start accepting applications again from 3 June 2024.
Registrants due to renew between 1 March and 31 May 2024 won’t need to complete their registration renewal. We’ve contacted all affected registrants to let you know that we will extend your registration for another year. You must still pay your annual fee to remain on the Register. We will let you know how to pay.
If you are due to pay your annual fee before 3 June, you can do this in your MySSSC account or by Tonepay on 03300 883719.
From 17 April to 3 June you cannot update changes to employment records in MySSSC.
We can only accept a change of employment relating to a fitness to practise referral or a case during that time. Please email registration@sssc.uk.com with your changes.
We’ll contact registrants directly to let you know how the changes affect you. It’s important your contact details are up to date, so you get our messages. Sign into MySSSC now to check and update them.
We’ll automatically move registrants to the correct part of the new Register and will let you know. You don’t need to do anything.
We’ll let you know when you need to complete your annual declaration. It will be around the time of your registration date and you can do it in MySSSC.
You’ll need to confirm your personal and employment details or provide updated details, pay your annual fee and confirm you’ve completed your continuous professional learning (CPL).
From 3 June 2024 anyone starting a role that requires registration has three months to apply for registration. You should start your application as soon as possible.
This page was last updated: 18 April 2024.
Registration is compulsory for many social service roles so visit our ‘Help with Register parts, fees and qualifications tool' for more information.
Access the tool hereCheck the registration status of a social worker or social care worker employed in Scotland
Search the Register
Continuous professional learning (CPL) is the learning we do for work which helps us develop our knowledge, skills and professional behaviour so we can deliver our best practice.
The Codes of Practice set out the standards of practice and behaviour expected of social service workers and their employers.
If you've changed your job or role then you may need to apply to be on a different part of the Register.
Check your existing registration and create a new or additional application online now in MySSSC.
