Be Inspired! Shirley Ayres Consulting

The regulation of social workers will be transferred to the Health Professions Council (HPC) according to the proposals published in the recent White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS.

 “3.36 The General Social Care Council is an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body responsible for the regulation of social workers and social work students in England. It is anomalous as the only professional regulator answerable directly to the Secretary of State for Health.

3.37 We see no compelling reason why the General Social Care Council should remain as an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body in the arm’s-length bodies sector, and we see potentially significant benefits from putting the regulation of social workers on a similar footing to the regulation of health professions. This involves the regulator being funded through registration fees charged to those registered, set at a level to cover the regulatory functions. In this way members of a regulated profession buy into their professional standards, which are set independently of government, and have an incentive to ensure these are upheld throughout the profession.

Therefore, we intend to abolish the General Social Care Council and move the regulation of social workers out of the arm’s-length bodies sector to make it financially independent of government. We believe that in future, the most appropriate model for the ongoing regulation of the social care workforce is to transfer responsibility for these functions to the Health Professions Council, a well established and efficient regulatory body currently regulating over 200,000 registrants from fifteen professions. The Health Professions Council – which will be renamed to reflect its new remit – operates a full cost recovery scheme and currently charges an annual fee of £76 per year, which is considerably less than the likely registration fee if the General Social Care Council were to operate alone on a full-cost recovery basis.

3.39 The Health Professions Council has an existing comprehensive and cohesive system of professional regulation which would apply to social care workers. This differs from the General Social Care Council model in several ways:

• the Health Professions Council is solely responsible for setting standards of education and training for its registrants, whereas it is the Secretary of State’s function to ascertain what training is required to become a social worker;

• unlike the General Social Care Council, the Health Professions Council do not register students, though as part of the approval process the Health Professions Council requires all Higher Education Institutes delivering pre-registration courses to operate a fitness for practice system for students;

• unlike the General Social Care Council, the Health Profession Council does not in practice approve post-registration courses apart from those related to prescribing drugs, although it has the power to do so.

We anticipate that the differences would be explored through a review of social care regulation. The abolition of the General Social Care Council, the transfer of functions in relation to the regulation of the social worker workforce and related changes will require primary legislation. The timing of these changes is dependent on discussion with the Health Professions Council and the General Social Care Council to ensure an orderly transition.

Finally, the General Social Care Council is also responsible for the payment of Education Support Grants, and we propose that if this function is to continue it should transfer to another body.” 

There are a number of unanswered questions about what will  happen to the other functions of the GSCC including post-registration training and learning. The HPC only approves a “small number” of post-registration qualifications. The GSCC approves all courses offering a formal post-qualifying award and reviews them every five years.

 The HPC does not register students, suggesting there is “insufficient evidence” that it is necessary to protect the public. This is an important part of the GSCC’s remit, because social work students can be placed in frontline teams within weeks of beginning a course.

How does this fit with the recommendations of the Social Work Reform Board and the establishment of the new National College of Social Work? As always it is the details, which have not yet been published, which will clarify the government intentions and vision for the future role, remit and regulation of social work.  

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2010/07/26/114983/GSCC-to-be-scrapped.htm

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2010/07/26/114986/sector-leaders-shocked-and-surprised-by-abolition-of-gscc.htm

Tags: gscc, professional leadership in social work, regulation of social work, Social Work

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If I ran a charity now our own search engine would be an essential  part of our fundraising toolkit.  Google and Yahoo have made their fortunes through charging for sponsored searches on the internet.  It is simple really, we can all turn our internet searches into charitable donations. If all your supporters use your dedicated search engine you can generate funds. This may only be small amounts but 100 people raising £50 each per year at no cost to themselves soon adds up.    

ClickNow the organisation that helps charities and schools raise money from internet searches was delighted to announce its latest collaboration with Blastbeat Education UK at their ‘Social Enterprise’ and ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition final which featured six new bands playing alongside famous acts like The Saturdays, rapper Tinchy Stryder and X Factor’s Stacey Solomon, on13th July at the O2 Arena, London. 

Recently Nick Hurd, government minister for civil society called for the public to increase their financial support to charities, to help them manage the tough times ahead as a result of cuts in public spending.  Hurd suggests that the public should donate one per cent of their income to charities. Fundraisers that use ClickNow’s innovative search tool could see an increase in donations without increasing the financial burden for their supporters.

ClickNow’s founder, Professor Kevin Morley, is a successful entrepreneur who in 2009 featured in The Secret Millionaire on Channel 4 when he visited Haringey one of the most deprived areas of London and gave away £250,000.

Opening the Blastbeat social enterprise fair and judging the student’s business skills. Kevin said “I’m delighted that Blastbeat has joined with ClickNow. In this current climate where there are many economic pressures, Blastbeat supporters now have a free and easy way of raising much needed funds through Blastbeat’s own search engine. In linking-up with ClickNow, Blastbeat joins over 500 other charities and schools who are now raising money for free through their own search engine.”  www.clicknow.org.uk/Blastbeat

Robert Stephenson, Blastbeat founder and chief executive commented “ Like many small charities we are always looking for innovative and sustainable ways of funding the Blastbeat charity. ClickNow is a free and easy useful tool which will help our efforts to empower young people as social entrepreneurs and music artists.”

Blastbeat Education UK has developed a fun and exciting Music and Multimedia Business / social enterprise progamme offered to young people and schools around the world. This innovative and dynamic schools-based programme teaches teenagers how to set up and run music and performance-based social enterprises. Blastbeat has engaged otherwise disaffected teenagers in the learning process and supported their transition from school to work.  www.uk.blastbeat.org 

In addition to Blastbeat, ClickNow has helped charities raise over £200,000 of income  simply by switching to ClickNow at no cost to the charity or their supporters. ClickNow has developed an internet search facility that provides search results from several of the major search engines in a clear and simple format. Whenever someone searches the internet using the ClickNow search facility, ClickNow receives money from the search engines and donates 50 per cent of this gross revenue to the participating charity. www.clicknow.org.uk

Does your charity have a search engine which allows you to turn your internet searches into charitable donations - if not, why not?

Tags: be inspired, charity fundraising, power of the internet

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The White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’ published yesterday reveal that power will be devolved from Whitehall to patients and professionals.

Patients will get more choice and control, backed by an information revolution. Services will be more responsive to patients and designed around them, rather than patients having to fit around services.  The principle will be “no decisions about me without me”. 

Under the new plans, patients will be able to choose which GP practice they register with, regardless of where they live, and choose between consultant-led teams.  More comprehensive and transparent information, such as patients’ own ratings, will help them make these choices together with healthcare professionals.

Local authorities will be given statutory responsibility for bringing health and social care together under the radical NHS reforms announced by health secretary Andrew Lansley. It is planned that primary care trusts and strategic health authorities will be abolished by 2013.

The health White Paper aims to create the largest social enterprise sector in the world by increasing the freedoms of foundation trusts and giving NHS staff the opportunity to have a greater say in the future of their organisations, including as employee-led social enterprises.

Consortia of GP practices will take on responsibility for commissioning most health services from PCTs while councils will take on PCTs’ public health functions and be charged with leading the integration of health and social care locally. GP consortia will commission most health services with a few exceptions, including dentistry, community pharmacy and large-scale specialist services.

The government also announced a wide-ranging review of health and social care regulation with a view towards significantly reducing the burdens on commissioners and providers.

The health White Paper will mean a change in the role of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), with some of its functions in promoting and disseminating good practice in social care being transferred to a strengthened National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice). The White Paper states that  ”The Health Bill will put NICE on a firmer statutory footing, securing its independence and core functions and extending its remit to social care”.

Closer integration of social care and health has been on every government agenda for many years. Putting People First and the Children’s Trusts have actively encouraged collaboration and partnerships. I hope that these radical proposals will build upon the many excellent examples of integrated working already in place which include the private and third sector. I am particularly concerned that the invaluable and innovative elearning developed by SCIE for the care sector over a number of years is maintained and further developed.  

The health White Paper is the start of an extensive consultation that will take place over the coming weeks.  The Department of Health will shortly be publishing a number of consultation documents to seek views on the more detailed proposals.

Connect on LinkedIn http://uk.linkedin.com/in/shirleyayres

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Tags: choice and control, commissioning services, elearning, health and social care, integrated working, regulation of social care and health, scie

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 The very act of leadership is making something happen. Are you ready to be the difference you want to see in the world?  

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Welcome to the Leaders Café 2020

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Tags: be inspired, Leadership and Management, Learning and Development, Social Work

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