The Social Care Council is responsible for:
– Maintaining a register of social workers and social care workers in Northern Ireland;
– Setting standards for social workers and social care workers for their conduct, training and practice;
– Setting standards for and regulating social work education and training in Northern Ireland
Better outcomes for the people who use social care services will be achieved by a regulated workforce that delivers safe, effective and values led care.
Supporting you to meet your Standards of Conduct and Practice
As the regulator for the social work and social care – our model of regulation enables registrants to meet standards by also supporting their learning and professional development.
The Social Care Council requires social workers and social care workers to undertake continuous learning and development throughout your careers to evidence you are meeting the Standards of Conduct and Practice. This is essential in building your confidence and professional practice as a Social Worker or Social Care Worker. This is called Post Registration Training and Learning (PRTL).
One of ways we are doing this is by developing learning resources to supplement and support your learning that are linked to your standards and making these resources freely available across all devices from our Learning Zone.
We also host lunchtime seminars and webinars on a range of practice topics relevant to our registrants.
Providing access to Guidance and Information
To support social care workers and social workers at the different stages of their career journeys we provide guidance on Induction, Post Registration Training and Learning (PRLT), Social Care Qualifications, the Degree in Social Work, Practice Learning, Assessed Year in Employment (AYE), the Professional in Practice Framework(PiP) and employer responsibilities and make this guidance available from our Learning Zone.
This is to support you from when you enter the sector and move into more enhanced, specialised or leadership roles to develop your knowledge, skills, competence and capabilities and become self-regulated learners.
Collaborative Partnership and Engagement with the Sector
We work in partnership with social care and social work employers, service users and carers, key stakeholders such as: DOH, RQIA and PHA but most importantly we work with you – social care and social work registrants to ensure that our learning resources, digital guides, lunchtime seminars and webinars are relevant and useful to support your continuous learning journeys and career pathways.