The last issue of SWC contained a poll asking social workers if professional regulation is important, 808* of you responded to this poll. A massive majority of 92% (745) said that you do think it is important and the main reason cited is because it helps to make sure that social workers get the training they need to ensure their practice is of a high standard.

You also felt strongly that regulation is important because it helps to weed out unsuitable people from the profession; it helps to improve public confidence in the profession and it helps to improve the status and standing of the social work profession. Full results are in our polls archive. http://www.socialworkconnections.org.uk/poll_archive

It is really encouraging to see that social workers appreciate the relevance and necessity of regulation and ultimately support its purpose to ensure high standards of practice.

Registered social worker, David Glover-Wright, agrees that regulation of social work has made a difference to the profession and users of the service:

"The GSCC has made a significant difference to social work practice. It has made practitioners formally accountable to society as well as themselves. The introduction of the GSCC’s code of practice now requires us to formally make the link between our values, beliefs and personal circumstances and their professional practice. This is not only an important regulatory function but also a therapeutic opportunity for practitioners to ensure we critically analyse and reflect on our own conduct and approach. We now need to ensure we maintain appropriate boundaries and conventions in both our professional and personal lives. This is a significant challenge and only becomes meaningful if the code of practice is incorporated into supervision, team management and the organisational culture.

Prior to the establishment of the GSCC there was no overarching formal code of practice. This led to uncertainty and vagueness about professional conduct issues and did nothing to enhance the professional integrity of social work. Service users now benefit from clearly defined codes of practice. Exploitative, abusive and negligent practice is picked up and challenged through the GSCC’s conduct processes. Further work is needed to ensure all employing organisations are aware of their responsibilities to ensure social workers regularly review their conduct and practice in supervision and professional development."

*figure correct on 28 May 2010

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England's Social Work provision for children is systemically poor. The recent Serious Case Review of Khyra Ishaq said that her Social Worker had 50 allocated cases, rather than the recommended 20. Whilst employers continue to get away with such unsafe allocation practice, Social Workers conduct will remain compromised. Like Teaching, Social Work is becoming a revolving door of committed individuals joining the 'profession', then finding working conditions are so poor they leave and then NQSW start the process off once again. To employers the Codes of Conduct are just merely rhetorical tools used by managers in to shift blame for poor practice from them to Social Workers.

Josephine G Cassidy
31 Jul 2010

As long as social worker employers don't have to comply with a statutory enforceable duty to follow the GSCC Codes of Conduct, employer based exploitative, abusive and negligent practice will continue to be a norm in many situations. As a social worker, I don't believe social workers will be able to challenge unethical practice that is colluded with by managers who are also GSCC registered social workers. This is because such managers, who need to be weeded out of the profession, can and do argue that they were merely following the instructions of their employer, even if it is they who created policies and hence practice that they know are contrary to ethical, lawful of good social work practice. These opinions can be evidenced by a quick scan of the published Judicial Reviews, involving social work services, and the mere sophistry and mendacity conveyed therein.

Francis Corrigan
14 Jun 2010