1.  Check the Social Care Register - Search the Social Care Register – Is your social worker registered?  If not they are breaking the law.  Check them out here.  You can also find out here where to Complain about the conduct of an individual social worker

 

 

2.  Check your councils Inspection Report for children’s services – View the full Inspection report carried out by the Inspectorate for children's services in your local authority.  An in depth report. How are they failing? Financial information, etc.

 

 

3.  Check out your council’s star rating – How does your local authority rate on Children's services?  How well do they serve children? Capacity for improvement, and how many stars to they have?  Find out…

 

 

4.  Check out your councils statistics for taking children – How many children have your local social services taken, and what was it for?  How old were the children?  Where were they placed?  How many went home? Also, lots of other statistics relating to this. 

 

1.  CHECK THE REGISTER

It is the job of:

GSCC  (General Social Care Council) for ENGLAND

NISCC (Northern Ireland Social Care Council) for NORTHERN IRELAND

CCW   (Care Council Wales) for WALES

SSSC  (Scottish Social Services Council) for SCOTLAND

- to register social workers and regulate social workers, and regulate their conduct and training.  If you have a complaint or concern about an individual social worker, then these are the people to contact:-

England

 

General Social Care Council

Conduct Dept

Goldings House

2 Heys Lane

London

SE1 2HB

Tel 0207 3975120
Fax 0207 3975121
Email  conduct@gscc.org.uk

 

Northern Ireland

 

Northern Ireland Social Care Council
7th Floor, Millennium House
Great Victoria Street
Belfast BT2 7AQ

Tel 02890 417600
Fax 02890 417601
Email info@niscc.n-i.nhs.uk

 

Scotland

 

Scottish Social Services Council
Compass House
Discovery Quay

11 Riverside Drive
Dundee DD1 4NY

Tel 01382 207101
Fax 01382 207215
Information service 0845 6030891
Email enquiries@sssc.uk.com

 

Wales

 

Care Council for Wales
6th Floor, West Wing
South Gate House
Wood Street
Cardiff CF10 1EW

Tel 029 2022 6257
Fax 029 2038 4764
Email info@ccwales.org.uk

 

It is mandatory for all social workers to be registered. The registers are held and maintained by the the above Social Care Councils.  With the link below you can check if a social worker is registered or not.  You can search by name, town where the social care worker is currently employed, or by social care registration

number. To refine your search results you just fill in more than one field.

 

The absence of a record does not necessarily mean that the worker is not registered. Call, or e-mail the Social Care Council for your country through the details above if you do not find the worker you are looking for.

 

Social workers who are not registered will be in breach of the law, and are therefore open to prosecution. Also, social workers who breach the Code of Practice for Social Care Workers could be removed from the register through the conduct process.

 

Please note:

 

In England if a social worker applied before August 2005 they will be able to work while the social care council process their forms.  If they applied after August they will be unable to work as a social worker until they are fully registered.

'Protection of title' the legislation that requires social workers to be registered only came into effect recently so social workers were not legally required to have applied for registration before the date this came into effect.

The GSCC has previously admitted that some social workers may work under different names as they are officially known as.  So watch out for this.

If you find that your social worker is not registered, you must complain to your local authority and the GSCI (see “Check your Councils Inspection Report for Children’s services) to obtain the address for the GSCI.

 

To check if a social worker is registered, please click one of the following links and put in the name of the social worker:-

 

To check register - ENGLAND:

http://www.gscc.org.uk/The+Social+Care+Register/Check+the+register/

 

To check register - SCOTLAND:

http://www.sssc.uk.com/Search+the+Register/Search+the+Register.htm

 

To check register - WALES:

http://www.ccwales.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=426

 

To check register - NORTHERN IRELAND:

http://www.niscc.info/registration/check.aspx

 

2.  CHECK YOUR COUNCILS INSPECTION REPORT FOR CHILDREN’S SERVICES

 

There is an inspectorate for social services for each UK country. 

 

These are:-

 

ENGLAND

Commission for Social Care Inspection (GSCI)
33 Greycoat Street
London
SW1P 2QF

Tel: 020 7979 2000
Fax: 020 7979 2111

Email: enquiries@csci.gsi.gov.uk

 

 

NORTHERN IRELAND

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, (DHSSPH)
Castle Buildings,
Stormont,
BELFAST.
BT 4 3SJ.

Tel: 028 90520500
Fax: 028 90520572
Email: webmaster@dhsspsni.gov.uk

 

 

SCOTLAND

The Scottish Commission for the regulation of care

Compass House
11 Riverside Drive
DUNDEE
DD1 4NY

Tel: 01382 207100
Fax: 01382 207289
Local: 0845 603 0890

 

 

WALES

Care Standards Inspectorate for Wales (CSIW)

4/5 Charnwood Court
Heol Billingsley
Parc Nantgarw
Nantgarw
CF15 7QZ

Tel: 01443 848450
Fax: 01443 848472

Email: csiw.no@wales.gsi.gov.uk

 

 

The Social Care Inspectorates have a duty to provide a local picture of the quantity and quality of social care services in each council area. They do this by regularly inspecting assessing and reviewing all care services in each local council area – public, private and voluntary services. They publish the inspection findings for each service or provider as a publicly available Inspection Report.  They also has the power to issue notices to local councils when services are not improving, and can take enforcement action when services do not meet minimum standards. The Commission has the power to issue notices to service providers to enforce the regulatory requirements of the National Minimum Standards.

 

In June 2006 it should become the duty of the GSCI in England to assume responsibility for the independent review of complaints concerning local authority social services departments.   After June 2006 any individual can complain to the Commission if they have are unhappy at how they have been treated by social services, or if social services have breached guidelines or laws. The GSCI have enforcement powers where there have been breaches of the regulations.

 

Local Authority Inspection 

At the end of each inspection a report is published and presented to the full council or appropriate council executive committee, the report is then available publicly. The council is required to prepare an action plan to address areas where development is required. Progress is then monitored.

To view your local councils Inspection Reports

 

ENGLAND

 

To view your local council’s Report (reports from Jan 2000 – present) please click on the following link. http://www.csci.org.uk/inspection_reports/local_council_inspection_reports/default.htm

1. Any reports in “blue” can be obtained by clicking them.

 

2. Any reports in black can be obtained by copying the name of the report you want and pasting it into the “title” box of the following website:-http://www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/Publications/PublicationsLibrary/fs/en

 

PLEASE NOTE:     You can always ask the Inspectorate to provide you with a written copy of the reports

 

NORTHERN IRELAND

You can get copies of the reports directly from the Social Services Inspectorate at telephone number (02890) 520708.

 

WALES

To view your local councils report, click on this link, and fill in the details http://www.csiw.wales.gov.uk/index.asp

 

On the right hand side click the area on the map that you live in.  This should take you to an Inspection Request Form.  Under “select a service type” – select children's services.

 

You can also view some Inspection Reports at the following link:-http://www.wales.gov.uk/subisocialpolicysocialservices/toc-e.htm#reports

PLEASE NOTE:     You can always ask the Inspectorate to provide you with a written copy of the reports

 

SCOTLAND

You can request a copy of your local councils Inspection Reports on Children's Services by going to the following request link and keying in your details:- http://www.carecommission.com/aboutus/foi.php

 

You can also request a copy from your local office. 

To find your local office, please click on this link: http://www.carecommission.com/offices.php

 

3. CHECK OUT YOUR COUNCILS STAR RATING

 

(ENGLAND ONLY)

Star Ratings for social services

three stars
two stars
one stars
zero stars	"-"

 

In 2001 the Secretary of State announced the introduction of performance ratings for social services. The star ratings summarise CSCI's independent judgements of performance across all social services, on a scale of zero to three stars.

 

The CSCI (General Social Care Inspectorate) has worked independently of the councils, since April 2003, to assess their performance, drawing on evidence from inspections, reviews, monitoring and performance indicator data. The ratings summarise this evidence.

 

The social star rating is designed to be compatible with performance information for both the NHS and other local government services.  The social services star ratings judgement feed directly into the local government comprehensive performance assessment (CPA).

 

Performance ratings are published each year, and the results will remain the same unless a zero star rated council can produce evidence of robust and substantial improvement, which may result in a higher rating being awarded, or if serious concerns about a council's performance arise during the year, then its rating may be reduced and special monitoring arrangements put in place.

 

For the best performing councils:-

 

The best performing councils have an increasing level of freedom in the way they use centrally provided grant funds, and have a reduced programme of inspection and monitoring.

 

For the worst performing councils (0 stars):-

 

Councils with zero stars receive additional support, return fuller information, and are subject to more frequent monitoring.

 

Top Worst Councils - 0 stars
Isles of Scilly
Plymouth
Sandwell

Runners up - 1 star
Barking and Dagenham
Barnet
Bedfordshire
Birmingham
Blackpool
Bristol City
Cambridgeshire
Cumbria
Ealing
Greenwich
Harrow
Lambeth
Lincolnshire
Liverpool
Luton
Medway
Milton Keynes
Norfolk
North East Lincolnshire
Nottingham City
Oldham
Portsmouth
Reading
Southend on Sea
Sutton
Swindon
Torbay
Waltham Forest
Warrington
West Sussex
Wokingham

 

Besides “stars” the council is also rated under two judgements for childrens  services. These are:- 

1) serving people well, and 2) capacity for improvement

 

These judgements are published alongside the “star” performance ratings.

 

To find out your councils star rating, and judgement please click on the following link, and find your council in the A – Z index:-http://www.csci.org.uk/care_professionals/councils/star_ratings.aspx 

 

 

Please also note:-  From here you can also access your Council Performance Review report.  This is a summary of recommendations that the GSCI have set for your council.

 

You can download a copy of the latest Full Published Report for Social Services in England by clicking on:

Download the 2004 Star Ratings report (PDF, 489 KB)

 

4.  CHECK OUT YOUR COUNCILS STATISTICS FOR TAKING CHILDREN

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/adoption/adoptionreforms/CLAbulletin2003-04final1.pdf

 

ENGLAND

For in depth and detailed information on children taken into care in England from 2001 - 2004 , for example reasons why they were taken.  How many children freed for adoption.  Where they were placed, How many children actually went home please view The National Statistics Bulletin for the Department of Education and Skills (looked after children in England) report  Click on the following link.  The statistics start at page 11 onwards: link to follow...

SCOTLAND

Below is a table showing the number’s of children and young people under care order’s in Scotland from 1999 – 2004. For much more in depth and detailed information, for example reasons why they were taken.  How many children r adoption.  Where they were placed, How many children actually went home please view The Scottish Executive National Statistics.  Click on:- http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00369-00.asp

 

NORTHERN IRELAND

For in depth and detailed information on children taken into care in England from 2003 -2004 , for example reasons why they were taken.  How many children freed for adoption.  Where they were placed, How many children actually went home please view The Department of Health social services and public safety. Community Statistics. Please click on the link below:-http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/publications/2005/CommunityStats03_04.pdf

 

WALES

For in depth and detailed information on children taken into care in England from 2003 - 2004 , for example reasons why they were taken.  How many children freed for adoption.  Where they were placed, How many children actually went home please view The Welsh Local Government Data Unit Personal Social Services Statistics 2004: Children.  Please click on the link below:-

http://www.lgdu-wales.gov.uk/eng/pss.asp?cat=201&year=2004

 

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