?

Edition No. 13 February 2002

Content

This Care Standards Update addresses the draft Code of Practice for employers published by the General Social Care Council.

Introduction

One of the Manifesto promises of the Labour Party at the 1997 General Election was the introduction of a General Social Care Council. The intention was to regulate the social care workforce in a manner similar to that in which the UKCC regulates the nursing profession.

Not long after their election to government talks were started, led by Paul Boateng, who was then the under Secretary of State for Health with responsibility for long term care, into the formation of the GSCC.

During those talks it became apparent that whilst all of the providers present were of the opinion that the most important aspect of the future GSCC was the regulation of unqualified care staff, that was not the intention of government. Their reluctance to start with, what would no doubt be, the largest group of workers appeared to be the sheer scale and cost of such a project.

The Government's intention was to start the GSCC by regulating those social care professions which were already subject to professional qualification, i.e. the Diploma in Social Work.

The various providers present at the meeting attempted to liken this to building a pyramid from the top down. We all expressed concern that service users would not be afforded protection from the least qualified group of people providing care to them, i.e. care assistants both in residential and nursing homes and also in the community.

The Government's response was to indicate that the first role of the General Social Care Council would be to produce Codes of Conduct for Social Care Workers and Codes of Practice for Employers. Thus, by policing the application of the Codes of Practice for Employers it would be possible to raise the standard of the care provided by care assistants.

The General Social Care Council was duly formed and amongst its first tasks were to produce the codes of practice and codes of conduct referred to. They have now been published and this Care Standards Update outlines the responsibilities placed upon employers and Care Standards Update number 14 addresses the code of conduct for employees. They have been produced separately in order that you could, if you wish, copy the employees code of conduct. It should be emphasised, however, that they are still in draft format.

National Minimum Standards Application

The enforcement of the Code of Practice for Employers is to be found in the National Minimum Standards for Older People at 29.4 which states:

AStaff are employed in accordance with the code of conduct and practice set by the General Social Care Council and are given copies of the code.

From this standard we can assume the following responsibilities to be placed upon us:

• One of the conditions of employment must be that employees accept that they must conform to the GSCC Code of Conduct for Social Care Workers. This should, therefore, be included in the Statement of Terms and Conditions of Employment and / or the employees handbook. It would also be prudent to include this requirement in the interview process.
  
• It necessary follows that our disciplinary procedures account for the above.
• We must provide copies to each of our employees.
• We must expect that the National Care Standards Commission will look for an audit trail of our compliance with this standard.

DRAFT CODE OF PRACTICE FOR EMPLOYERS

Purpose

This code sets down the responsibilities of employers in the regulation of social care workers. The purpose of workforce regulation is to safeguard and promote the interest of service users and carers. The code is intended to complement rather than replace or duplicate existing departmental or agency policies and it forms part of the wider package of legislation, requirements and guidance that relate to the employment of staff. The (xxx regulatory body) will monitor the adherence of social care employers to this code.

To meet their responsibilities in relation to the regulation of the social care workforce social care employers must:

• Use rigorous recruitment and selection processes focussed on making sure that only people who are suitable and competent to provide social care are allowed to enter the workforce;
• Make required checks of police records, relevant registers and indexes and check that people are physically capable of carrying out the duties of the job they have been selected for, before confirming their appointment;
• Inform social care staff about the council's code of practice for social care workers and their personal responsibility to adhere to that code;
• Give staff clear information about their roles and responsibilities, and the legislation and organisational policies and procedures they must follow in their work;
• Regularly supervise and effectively manage staff to support good practice and professional development to address any deficiencies in their performance.
• Provide training and development opportunities to help staff to do their jobs and to strengthen and develop their skills and knowledge;
• Contribute to the provision of social care and social work education and training, and provide properly resourced and managed workplace assessment and opportunities for practice learning;
• Assist staff in posts subject to registration to meet the council's eligibility criteria for registration and its requirements for continuing professional development;
• Promote and implement practice policies and procedures for staff welfare and equal opportunities, and make it clear to staff they bullying and harassment is not acceptable in the workplace;
• Make it clear to service users and carers that violence, threats or abuse to staff are not acceptable and have clear policies and procedures for preventing violence and managing violent incidents;
• Support and offer appropriate assistance to staff whose work is affected by ill health or dependency on drugs or alcohol, and give clear guidance about any limits on their work while they are receiving treatment;
• Provide procedures which encourage and enable staff to report unsafe, incompetent or abusive behaviour, and deal with such reports promptly and openly;
• Check whether social care staff who are the subject of disciplinary proceedings have followed the council's code of practice for workers;
• Inform the council about any serious beaches of its code of practice for workers by staff who are registrants and inform the staff involved that a report has been made to the council;
• Co-operate with council investigations and hearings and respond appropriate to the findings and decisions of the council; and
• Make services users and carers aware of this code and the code of practice for social care workers and inform them about how to contact the council in relation to the codes.

Conclusion

The draft Code of Practice for Employers is a consultation document, if you have any comments on this or the Code of Conduct for Social Care Workers you should forward them direct to the General Social Care Council.