The GSCC will be consulting on significant changes to some aspects of the way it regulates the profession in the coming months. The changes are designed to improve our effectiveness in protecting the public and will affect the way you interact with us though our registration and conduct processes.
One of the major changes that we will be consulting on is to give the GSCC's panels, who hear social worker conduct cases, powers to impose conditions on the registration of a social worker who has committed misconduct. We will be proposing that these conditions will be imposed by the panels to ensure that social workers, who have committed misconduct address certain performance issues which have been identified by the panel in their finding of misconduct. This could include for example, seeking medical treatment for an identified health condition, undertaking specialist training, or refraining from carrying out particular tasks These conditions will only be set by the panel if they are considered to be sufficient to protect the public and that there are suitable arrangements to monitor the conditions.
Currently the only sanctions available to the panels when misconduct is found are to remove a social worker from the Social Care Register, suspend the social worker from practising, or admonish the social worker, allowing them to continue to practise without conditions.
A change in the law is required for the GSCC to introduce these changes which is why we will be consulting on these changes.
We will be asking social workers to join us at a dedicated consultation event where you will be given the chance to influence these important reforms. If you would like more information, or to be involved, please contact Jenna Khalfan (jenna.khalfan@gscc.org.uk, 020 7397 5802), including your contact details and current role. Please note that places at these events will be limited.
