Section 56 The register
154.This section provides for the Council to establish and maintain a register of social care workers. There is to be a separate part of the register for social workers and for any other description of social care workers specified by the appropriate Minister by order. Applicants for registration must satisfy the requirements of section 58, including any training requirements imposed by the Council.
155.The social care workforce is large, diverse and mainly unqualified. This sector has approximately one million staff in England and Wales, 80% of whom hold no relevant qualifications. With these low levels of qualifications in the workforce it is envisaged that registration will be incremental, by occupational group. Professional social workers, virtually all of whom are qualified, will be the first group of staff to be registered. In England the Government is funding the training of residential child care workers, as a priority group, to National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) level 3 to ensure that they are among the early registrants with the GSCC.