PROPOSED POST REGISTRATION TRAINING AND LEARNING
REQUIREMENTS FOR NEWLY QUALIFIED SOCIAL WORKERS
UNISON Scotland's response to the Scottish
Social Services Council Consultation on Proposed Post Registration
Training and Learning Requirements for Newly Qualified Social
Workers
June 2005.
Executive Summary
Introduction
UNISON is Scotland's largest trade union representing
150,000 members delivering public services in Local Government,
Health, and the voluntary and community sector. We are the major
trade union for social work staff in all of the above sectors.
This paper constitutes UNISON Scotland's response
to the consultation document issued by the Scottish Social Services
Council on Post Registration Training and Learning (PRTL) Requirements
for Newly Qualified Social Workers
Response
UNISON Scotland welcomes the opportunity to comment
on the above Consultation by the Scottish Social Services Council.
UNISON Scotland supports the proposed Post Registration
Training and Learning (PRTL) requirements for newly qualified
social workers and particularly welcomes the increase in days
from 15 (90 hours) to 24 (144 hours).
We wish to make the following comments on the
proposals:
The Post Registration Training and Learning (PRTL)
given to a newly qualified social worker should not be seen
as part of the normal induction process, but be about real academic
education (3.1). However, to allow the social worker to undertake
this activity, time needs to be built into their work programme
and they need to be facilitated to carry it out. Due to the
pressures on staffing levels, it would be understandable for
managers to omit certain aspects, so they could continue to
use the member of staff on operational duties. Continuous monitoring
of workloads must be undertaken by managers to ensure that proper
arrangements are put in place with backfill available to cover
for the time. The training should be part of the normal working
week and seen as part of their Continuous Professional Development.
We believe the training should be more specifically
related to projects about child and adult protection and we
welcome the proposals that at least five days (30 hours) should
focus on working in this area. (3.2)
With regard to the lead SSSC countersignatory
for the organisation employing the social worker, (3.6) we must
emphasise that the person countersigning should be a registered
social worker. This is particularly relevant when a social worker
is not employed in a local authority Social Work Department,
but could be working in the NHS, in a Joint Future undertaking
or the Community and Voluntary Sector.
We are pleased to note that the proposed renewal
of the registration process will not incur any additional fees.
We support the safeguards built into the consultation
for the social worker to be able to make comment on any adverse
reports and at the proposal to refer any refused registrations
to a Registration Sub-Committee for determination.
