The Northern Ireland Social Care Council (the Social Care Council) has published its 2022-2023 Annual Report and Accounts.
The report provides an insight into the wide range of work delivered through the Social Care Council in 2022-23 to manage standards and registration for the 44,000 people approved to provide social work and social care services across Northern Ireland.
Patricia Higgins, Social Care Council CEO said:
‘This Annual Report for the period April 2022 to March 2023 reflects a successful achievement of our business objectives across another very challenging year.’
‘It is encouraging to see the difference that our work has made in the last year for both the registered workforce and for people receiving care. Our plans for the next few years will build on these achievements. With our partners and stakeholders, we will continue our work to support and develop the social work and social care workforce.’
Some of the key achievements for 2022-23 include:
– 59k people supported with requests for advice and support on workforce regulation, registration and development and 93% positive feedback reported on the service provided.
– 493 concerns about registrant fitness to practise assessed and managed, with cases, committees and hearings delivered in a fair and proportionate manner to enable registrants to improve their practice where appropriate.
– Social work education and practice standards maintained across NI, with 292 students enrolled on the Degree in Autumn 2022, 255 Degree in Social Work graduates in Summer 2022 and 167 social workers achieving Professional Practice Awards for their CPD achievements in Autumn 2022.
– 50k people using the Learning Zone digital learning resources in their ongoing learning and development at a time and pace that suits them, helping them to embed standards into their practice.
– 10k followers engaged across social media, print and broadcast media to raise awareness of social work and social care as valuable and rewarding careers that contribute to front-line services.
– Management of our resources and caring for the wellbeing of our people; achieving financial breakeven, being awarded Investors in People Health and Wellbeing Gold and managing the transfer of our people and services to new premises at James House
The full copy of the Social Care Council Annual Report and Accounts for 2022-23 is available from our website at: https://niscc.info/annual-reports/.This report was recently approved by the Board and laid in the Northern Ireland Assembly.