Re-registration

I was one of those many social workers who formed the first wave of ‘GSCC’ registrations when the General Social Care Council was established and the Care Standards Act (2000) deigned that social workers need to register and that no-one can be called a ‘social worker’ unless they are trained as such.

So back in 2004/5 all currently practising social workers had to en masse register with the GSCC. As the registration lasts for three years, there was another re-registration in 2007/8 and so we come to the third wave of ‘re-registrations’ now, between 2010 and 2011.

There are a lot of people who are due to be re-registered  at the moment. My forms are sitting on my desk right at this very moment. It isn’t a terribly complicated procedure although last time I had some.. issues.. with payments being taken. I am already thinking ahead and using a cheque this time – I hope I still have a cheque-book in three years time when the registration comes round again!

I knew I should have kept a proper log of all my training. I don’t have any problems with maintaining the training requirements. I’m probably about three times over the necessary days what with the practice teaching and the practice teachers’ forums, the AMHP legal updates and forums and the BIA legal updates and forums – and that’s not even counting the Safeguarding updates and training that I have to access regularly. I just haven’t been that great at logging it because I knew providing the days and hours training requirements wouldn’t be a problem.

This time round, I am going to keep a log even though it won’t be the GSCC I register with next time. I’m sure I said that three years ago. Oh well. This is why I don’t like new year’s resolutions!

I was pottering around on the GSCC site though just to get another copy of the training log printed out (my first one seemed to have been lost under a heap of paperwork). I did look up the information about Post-Qualifying training and decided to read a few of the universities’ ‘Annual Monitoring Report’s and the responses of the GSCC.

It made absolutely fascinating reading and I’d say absolutely essential for anyone who is thinking of doing a social work course. It explains figures about placements for a start and applications – and that’s one of the most concerning parts of the course.

I’ll take a few random examples from universities I have never had any connection whatsoever with -

Leeds Metropolitan University for example  – in 2008/9 had 884 applicants for their BA programme and 290 applicants for the MA programme. There are  213 studying for the BA and 36 for the MA – roughly dividing the BA students by 3 and the MA by 2 you have a vague idea of how many places are available.   The University of Durham meanwhile, which only has the Masters Programme had 170 applicants and 90 students.

It’s interesting because I would have figured Durham would be more competitive..

Perhaps more useful is that it details how many students have made complaints to the universities and what they have complained about.

The other interesting fact is about placements. So for Leeds Metropolitan University we know that there were 209 placements needed and 209 were provided. 12 broke down and 20 started late.

Durham needed 80 placements and found 80 placements.2 broke down and none started late.

Basically, it’s all information I’d have loved to have had before applying for a social work course. Every university that delivers social work training has provided it and it is available on the GSCC site.

If you go to Social Work Degree Courses in England and then find the University in question, click on the name of the university and the reports will show up. It’s fascinating reading. I went immediately to check my old university and the one that sent the student I was supervising.

Anyway, that got me off the point of re-registration. Perhaps that’s why filling in a simple form is taking me so long.. so easy to get distracted from the tedium..