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The Way Forward for Care

Chapter 9 What the Council will do

113. The statutory duties of the Council will be to regulate the social services workforce and its education and training. It will do this by:

• establishing registers of particular groups in the workforce;
• publishing and promulgating codes of conduct and practice for all the workforce and complementary codes of practice for their employers;
• regulating the education and training of social services workers; and
• undertaking the functions of the National Training Organisation, the Training Organisation for the Personal Social Services (TOPSS) (Scotland).

Establishing registers

114. The previous consultation paper Modernising Social Work Services: A Consultation Paper on Workforce Regulation and Education issued in November 1998 by the Scottish Office outlined 2 possible models of registration - an employment-based register and a qualifications-based register. There was widespread support for the employment-based option, on the basis that it would register more staff who directly provide services and therefore offer more protection for users and it would provide a more comprehensive basis for staff becoming appropriately qualified. It was acknowledged however that the practical issues of setting up a register of such size and complexity would prove daunting and might threaten the achievement of short-term targets which would benefit service users. It was therefore decided that a limited qualifications-based register would be a more realistic way forward. The White Paper therefore proposed a qualifications-based register for 3 groups of staff:

• social workers;
• all staff in residential child care; and
• heads of all residential care homes.

115. Around 95 per cent of local authority social workers have the professional qualification (the Diploma in Social Work or its equivalent). The recent launch of the Residential Child Care Initiative was designed to ensure that all residential child care staff would achieve agreed qualifications. These would be specified in regulations to be issued by Scottish Ministers. Work is in hand to determine the occupational standards required of heads of residential care homes. This will ascertain whether it is necessary to design and deliver a specific qualification for heads of residential care homes so that they can achieve registration.

116. The consultation paper Regulating Care and the Social Services Workforce did not request views about the scope or type of register, but nevertheless a significant number of respondents gave views. A strong view of those respondents who expressed views on this topic was that registration should extend further than the 3 key groups identified in the White Paper. Some key stakeholders called for the registration of all care staff. Others noted the anomalies in the selection of priority groups i.e. that staff in residential child care would be registered but not in residential adult care; that heads of residential care homes would be registered but not managers of day services. There was a general call for a clear phasing in of registration.

117. The Reference Group, in both a sub-group on Council issues and in its main group, has explored the problem of how service users could be protected from unregistered but regulated staff who breached the code of conduct and practice. There was a strong view that such staff should be tracked so that new employers could take account of prospective employees' previous breaches of the codes. This will be possible through the extension of the Council's register and by the establishment of a statutory index to protect children and vulnerable adults. There would be human rights difficulties if this was not achieved through a statutory registration system or a statutory index. Proposals to extend the register and to establish an index are detailed below.

118. It is proposed that the legislation should place upon the Council a duty to maintain a register of:

• social workers, i.e. those with DipSW or equivalent; and
• other social service workers which Ministers will specify by order.

119. In the first phase other social service workers will include:

• all staff in residential child care;
• all heads of residential care homes;
• all heads of adult day care services; and *
• registration and inspection staff of the Commission.*

120. In the second phase the following groups will be registered:

• all staff in adult residential care; and *
• all staff working in early education and childcare.*

121. The groups proposed for registration above include 4 groups (annotated thus *) which were not specified in the consultation paper but were identified in the responses. Further phases will follow as soon as is practical, as other groups are identified and as qualifications are achieved.

122. There are about 700 managers of day care centres. It is envisaged that many of the occupational standards identified for heads of homes would also apply to managers of day care services. TOPSS will be asked to further tailor and develop standards for these managers and to consider whether a qualification is required. Any qualification which was developed for managers of residential homes would be modular and some of the modules could be adapted for day care managers under the rubric of group care. Registration of this group could be achieved through a qualifications route over the medium term.

123. To register all staff in residential adult care through a qualifications route would be more problematic. There are of the order of 8,000 care staff in residential adult care most of whom are unqualified. This includes care staff in nursing homes. The use of qualifications as a basis for registering this group will take longer and will have to be introduced over a longer timescale, as qualification levels improved. The establishment of a qualifications-based register would be possible if the qualification threshold was initially set quite low, for example SVQ level 2. It is not intended that heads of early education and childcare centres will be dealt with separately from other staff working in early education and childcare. Rather they will be registered as part of a subsequent phase of registration to include early education and childcare staff. Regulation of these services by the Commission will involve checks on the suitability of managers. Requirements in respect of staff qualifications will also continue and it will be made clear that managers should be among those holding a relevant qualification.

124. The White Paper proposed that a health check be a criterion for registration. Some respondents expressed concern at this requirement. They suggested that such occupational health checks should be job specific because health status could vary over time. The position of other professional regulators varies. The General Medical Council and the United Kingdom Central Council for Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors (UKCC) do not require health checks although doctors and nurses do require medical checks both on commencing training and taking up employment. Regulations require an occupational health check both before student teachers commence their practical training and as a requirement for subsequent registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland.

125. The White Paper emphasised that the new system of regulation should not usurp the role of employers. Ministers consider therefore that the code of practice for employers should ensure that they are required to institute appropriate occupational health checks on their employees. A health check would not therefore be required as a condition of registration.

Codes of conduct and practice

126. All social services staff who have, or attain, professional status, will be required to adhere to codes of ethics, conduct and practice. We consider that it is important that all staff should operate within an enforceable code of conduct and practice.

127. The consultation paper of November 1998 invited views on the need for codes of conduct and practice and ways of implementing them. All the main stakeholders agreed that there should be codes for both employees and employers. There was concern about the detail of how they would be enforced, concern that the codes were truly complementary and concern that the responsibility of employers was not undermined.

128. We propose that the Council should prepare and publish codes of practice which lay down both standards of conduct and practice expected of the social services workforce and standards of conduct and practice expected of employers of social services workers. These codes will be enforced through registration and inspection by the Commission.

Unsuitable workers

129. To ensure that people who are deemed unsuitable to work with children do not participate in the social services workforce, it is intended to put an additional safeguard in place. As announced in the Executive's Programme for Government Making it Work Together a statutory index of such adults will be established. A separate pre-legislative consultation paper is being published. The intention is that where someone is dismissed from employment (including as an unpaid volunteer) in circumstances that indicate that they are unsuitable to work with children because they have harmed children or put them at risk of harm, Scottish Ministers will be able to place his or her name on the index.

130. The person concerned would have the right to make representations as to why they should not be placed on the index, and there would also be an independent appeals system. Persons on the index would be disqualified from working with children, as would those convicted of certain specified serious offences against children. It is intended that the code of practice for employers will require them to inform the index of those considered unsuitable to work with children and to check the index before making any appointment to their social care workforce. As noted earlier it is intended to give Scottish Ministers an additional power to establish a similar index of those deemed unsuitable to work with vulnerable adults.

Regulation of education for professional social work and social care

131. The legislation will provide for the functions of CCETSW to regulate, promote and develop professional social work education to pass to the Council. The Council will also assume the responsibilities currently undertaken by TOPSS Scotland which include workforce planning, qualification and standards development and specific employment and training initiatives. The relationship between the Council and other relevant National Training Organisations which carry responsibility for occupational standards development and workforce training will also need to be addressed, both at a Scottish and a UK level.

Other regulated staff

132. The consultation paper asked for views about the position of staff in the social services workforce who were already registered by and accountable to other regulatory bodies, for example nurses and occupational therapists.

133. The responses raised a number of important questions relating to the capacities in which other regulated staff are employed, their accountability, their eligibility for future employment and the payment of dues. The majority of respondents considered that dual registration should be allowed for, alongside the development of clear protocols between the Council and other regulatory bodies.

134. It is proposed that the option of dual registration is now explored in detail with other regulatory bodies, taking account of the important points of detail raised during the consultation.

Protection of title

135. The consultation paper raised the question of the protection of title for different categories of staff as a means of increasing public confidence and extending public protection.

136. The British Association of Social Workers amongst others, put in a strong plea for the designation "social worker" to be restricted to those holding a professional qualification in social work. It was also suggested that there should be a clearer national understanding about the posts which employers required to be filled by qualified social workers.

137. If, as is proposed, gaining a professional qualification in social work allows the holder to be registered, the title should be protected to ensure that there is no public confusion about credentials. Registration should offer both a measure of reassurance to service users and make it easier to hold qualified staff to account if things do go wrong. The legislation will give the Council the powers to protect title in this way with Scottish Ministers deciding the appropriate time for implementation. The task currently being undertaken by TOPSS Scotland to match posts to qualifications, should assist employers to deploy qualified staff more consistently across Scotland.

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