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The Way Forward for Care

Chapter 10 How the Council will work

Registers

138. There is considerable experience of registering other professional groups in the human services. However, public concern about defects in some of these registers has been compounded by several recent high profile cases. Much of the difficulty of existing registers lies with the standard of proof required of the regulatory body before a registrant can be struck off. Usually the standard of proof required is that of a criminal court, i.e. beyond reasonable doubt. Consultation and discussion within the Reference Group of experts suggests that the Council should not follow this route but should require a level of proof based on a balance of probabilities. In order to better protect the public, Ministers are minded to ensure that the Council operates in this way.

139. It was first announced by the then Scottish Office Minister in December 1997 that a workforce regulator would be established. At that time it was emphasised that the regulator in Scotland would be aligned with the other proposed social services workforce regulators elsewhere in the UK, to ensure that there were no loopholes which allowed staff struck off in one part of the UK to be employed in another. The Scottish Executive has been in discussion with the National Assembly for Wales, the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland and the Department of Health in England to ensure that the registration systems can be aligned as far as possible, and yet allow for differences as appropriate. To prepare for establishing the registers it has been decided to commission a study on how registers might work drawing on all the lessons of established practice. The outcome of this work will be used by the Scottish Executive in the establishment of the Council's registration process.

Codes of conduct and practice

140. We have already commented that in the absence of a registration system for the entire workforce establishing codes of conduct and practice is essential to achieving more consistently high standards. The Government Departments in the 4 parts of the UK have commissioned the Office of Public Management to develop draft codes of conduct and practice. This work is ongoing. There has been consultation across the UK and there is general agreement amongst stakeholders and Government that the codes should be broadly the same for each country. This would ensure alignment and avoid the loopholes already referred to. In Scotland, unlike England and Wales the workforce includes staff providing services in the criminal justice system. In Wales and Northern Ireland account will need to be taken respectively of legislation which addresses the use of the Welsh language and religious affiliation in employment.

141. It is expected that there will need to be more work required to agree the codes and ensure that they can be properly monitored and enforced. The Commission will have a duty to undertake this monitoring through registration and inspection.

Regulation of education for professional social work and social care

142. In carrying out these responsibilities, the Council will need to take account of expected reforms of professional social work education following the recent externally commissioned review of current arrangements. They will also wish to consider specific proposals for modernisation by the Scottish Executive that will be published later this year.

143. It will be important for the Council to establish clearly the nature of its working relationships with TOPSS in England, where TOPSS will be a separate organisation, and TOPSS in Wales and Northern Ireland, where they will be located within the regulatory councils. It will be essential to ensure that occupational standards developed by TOPSS are fit for purpose in Scotland.

144. In its approach to regulation, the Council should seek to ensure that there is not over regulation. This will mean a coming together of organisations currently responsible for standards and quality assurance (academic institutions themselves, Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, the Quality Assurance Agency, the Scottish Qualifications Authority, the Council and the Scottish Executive) to discuss and agree the most appropriate way forward. An improved workforce planning capacity, should make it easier to identify education and training needs and requirements across the social services workforce and to relate these to a planned programme of recruitment and development. The current national initiative in residential child care has already started this process.

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