16 July 2004
Social care provision could be disrupted next year and social workers' pay stopped if a dispute over registration is not resolved quickly, social care minister Stephen Ladyman has told Public Finance.
Of the estimated 40,000 social workers working in the UK for local authorities or other employers, only about 6,000 have applied to be registered so far and fewer than 5,000 have been approved, according to the General Social Care Council.
Under new legislation designed to protect the title of 'social worker', no one will be entitled to describe themselves as such after April 1 next year unless they are registered.
The GSCC warns that all social workers should apply by the end of December if they wish their registration to be approved by April.
Ladyman believes that delay by most social workers, followed by a big wave of applications towards the end of the year, could swamp the system. The minister wrote to all local authorities three months ago asking them not to appoint social workers unless they were registered.
The primary reason for the slow progress on registration, said Ladyman, was Unison's recommendation for its members not to register unless their employers paid the £30 fee for doing so. Unison did not respond to Public Finance's request for comment.
Ian Johnstone, director of the British Association of Social Workers, said that it had campaigned for 25 years for a professional register. While it wanted employers to pay the fee, the important thing was to protect vulnerable people by universal registration. He added that many employers had now increased salaries to cover the registration costs.
Ladyman said he was 'very disappointed at the attitude of Unison'. He added: 'When the government says let's protect the title of “social worker” and their [the social workers'] attitude is how can I save 30 quid, that says more about them – it's just depressing.
'They won't be able to call themselves social workers – and some of their employers may take the view that if they can't call themselves social workers, they can't do their job – and some of them might not get paid and, more importantly, people they were working with won't get looked after.'
He added that compulsory registration was an option now being considered.
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