Private Care Sector Workforce Initiative

SSSC Registration

Introduction

The Register of Social Service Workers in Scotland opened on 1 April 2003.

Registration is a major part of the drive for higher standards in social services and will bring this workforce in line with other professional colleagues. Nursing, medicine and teaching are all regulated professions and workers have to register with their own regulatory bodies to be able to work in their field.  Now social service workers have to do the same. The body that deals with registration is the Scottish Social Services Council (care provider organisations must register with the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care).  Workers are placed in different categories according to the setting within which they are employed.  For the purposes of the private care sector, the settings are:

Important Information - Required Registration for Managers of Care Home and Day Care Services for Adults - should have been in by 31 May 2009.  Click here for more information.  Managers who have not registered risk not having completed the process prior to the effective date of 30th November.

Click here for a table outlining the Required registration dates across the Social Services Sector 

 

Step-by-Step guides  - A series of step-by-step guides are available to help registrants get started with the SSSC’s online registration system. Over the coming months we plan to expand the system to offer a wider range of online services to social service workers and their employers. To access the system or obtain more information visit the SSSC web site click here

Care Commission Monitoring - of required Registration of Care Home Managers for Adult Services

Care Commission to monitor uptake of registration and take enforcement action if required click here for more information  and see final two paragraphs in particular.

Workers in care at home services

- Announcement of registration of Managers of Care at Home Sevices with the Scottish Social Services Council.

Scottish Government Minister Adam ingram advises of Care at home and Housing support registration commencing December 2010 - click here for the full text of the letter.

There is no word as yet on when registration will be required for the other members of the Care at Home workforce.  We will keep you informed of progress as we hear it.

 

Registration Criteria
For those workers for whom the register is open with the SSSC (see above links to the relevant settings), the worker must satisfy the criteria for registration. This includes:

Applicants for registration who do not hold the required qualifications may, if they meet all the other eligibility criteria for registration eg evidence of ‘good character’, be granted registration subject to the condition that they achieve the required qualifications within a specified period which will normally be three years when they apply for re-registration.

To register with the SSSC you must also: