162.The Council will take over the regulation of professional social work training and related post-qualifying training from the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW). Section 63 gives wide powers to the Council to make rules about the approval of courses with the intention of ensuring the consistency and quality of the education to be provided for social workers at pre- and post-qualifying levels.
163.It is essential that all social care training is appropriately regulated if standards in social care work are to be improved. This is part of the main intention behind the establishment of the Councils. CCETSW has the statutory duty to regulate professional social work training only. The new Councils will have functions in respect of training for all social care work. When CCETSW, which is a UK body, ceases to exercise its functions in relation to England and Wales, the regulation of professional social work training in England will be transferred to the GSCC, and training in Wales will be transferred to the CCW as the most appropriate bodies. Scotland and Northern Ireland will legislate separately to create new arrangements for CCETSW’s functions.
164.National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), the qualifications for the non-professional social care staff, are already regulated by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. It would not be sensible to remove social care NVQs from these overall arrangements for NVQs for separate regulation. The Council’s function in respect of this type of training will be to make completion of particular NVQ courses a requirement to registration. An example in England may be the registration of residential childcare workers, which would be likely to require qualification at NVQ level 3, as discussed in the commentary on section 56 earlier in these notes.
Commentary on Sections Training Sections 63 Approval of courses etc