About the Social Care Workers Registration Board

Appointment of members to the Social Care Workers Registration Board

The Minister for Health confirmed on 27 March 2015 the establishment of and appointment of members to the Social Care Workers Registration Board, under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (amended) to regulate the profession of social care workers.

The first meeting took place on 25 May 2015, Ms Dunia Hutchinson was elected as Chair and Mr James Forbes was proposed as the representative of the Board on Council.

The Social Care Workers Registration Board is currently preparing for the registration of the profession. This includes the approval of education courses and requirements for registration including the code of Professional Conduct and Ethics. CORU will consult with social care workers about how the profession is to be regulated.

Role of the Social Care Workers Registration Board

The primary remit of CORU is to protect the public and our role in relation to all our designated professions' Registration Boards is to:

• Set the standards that health and social care professionals must meet
• Ensure that the relevant educational bodies deliver qualifications that prepare professionals to provide safe and appropriate care
• Maintain and publish a Register of health and social care professionals who meet our standards
• Ensure that registered professionals keep their skills up to date by promoting Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
• Establish Fitness to Practise to deal with registrants who do not meet the required standards

All of the above standards are subject to vigorous public consultation processes and the immediate work of the Social Care Workers Registration Board will be to prepare the standards required, as outlined above, as they refer to social care work professionals.