§ Baroness Greengrossasked Her Majesty's Government:
What proportion of social workers have now (a) successfully registered or (b) sent in their applications to the General Social Care Council. [HL74]
§ Lord WarnerThe General Social Care Council (GSCC) has received an estimated 35,000 application forms as of 29 November 2004. This represents a substantial proportion of the estimated 40,000 social workers in front-line practice. Further forms are expected before the GSCC's cut-off date for receiving applications and data on the number of applications received by 1 December will be available shortly after.
Accurate data on the number of people in social work positions are yet not available as such data have not been routinely collected for all sectors in which social workers are based. One purpose of the register is to provide that information for workforce planning and other purposes.
5,379 social workers have been registered to date. The rate of registration is expected to increase significantly after 1 December 2004 when new simplified processes take effect. The GSCC has plans in place to process all applications to register by 1 April 2005 when protection of the title "social worker" comes into force.