Scottish Social Services Council - proposed register changes: consultation

Changes to the Public Facing Register

This consultation also seeks your views on the proposal to include more information on the searchable public Register. The information which would be made public would be the following:

• The level of role – currently the Register part tells you the level at which an individual is registered to operate (manager, supervisor, support worker). If, following the outcome of this consultation, the decision is taken to reduce the Register parts from 23 to 4, this level of detail would no longer be available. Instead, the Register would detail, for example, that a worker is on the Social Care Workforce part of the Register with no indication of the level at which they are working. We propose to include this detail on the public facing Register. This will allow employers/interested parties to know the level at which a worker is operating.
• Whether a registrant has the qualification for their role - the proposed change will make it optional for the SSSC to display qualifications on the public facing Register. This will initially show certain specialist qualifications with the intention that this is expanded in the future. This will promote the importance of qualifications, and particularly the importance of specialist qualifications.
• Whether there is a fitness to practise warning and/or condition – this information is currently published on another page of the SSSC's website, but is not linked to the public facing Register. This will show any live sanction in place. This means the public facing Register will show, at a glance, all relevant information regarding an individual's registration and fitness to practice. Sanctions are currently shown on a different part of the website, but not linked to the public facing Register. This means the existence of a sanction could easily be missed. Having this information available on the public facing Register makes it easier for interested parties to see full details of the reasons for any sanctions being in place. This is the approach taken by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
• Whether a registrant holds a specialist qualification such as a mental health officer award or a practice teaching award.

We believe that introducing this information to the searchable public Register will improve professional recognition of specialisms, whilst also making it easier for the public to check the Register and find out the status of someone working with them, or someone they care for.

The Scottish Government believe that the Public Facing Register is where the public should be able to see any issues with an individual's fitness to practice. This is currently available on a separate part of the website, however these changes would essentially make this information easier to obtain.

These changes would bring the SSSC in line with all the other professional regulators such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and would make the Public Facing Register much clearer to the public.