Health and Social Care Bill

We are talking about controlling risk. The noble Baroness is right that the Government will retain an open mind about statutory regulation. I hope that that is clear. We have not closed the door to that by any means. However, clinical physiologists, for example, say that risks are apparent to them which some clinical physiologists pose to patients. We have never seen evidence of those risks. In the past, when the Health Professions Council made recommendations about regulation, it has not considered risks. However, we agree with the previous Administration that the extension of regulation should be based on risk. That is the key point. If it is shown that, notwithstanding everybody's best efforts, assured voluntary registration has not been sufficient to protect patients then, of course, any responsible Government would wish to see a strengthening of the measures around registration. I revert now to social workers, as I hope that I have covered the points raised. We can most effectively bring improvements to the regulation of social workers in England by transferring their regulation to the Health Professions Council. To answer the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, it may well be that the GSCC could have delivered improvements in the way that social workers are regulated. However, reforming the GSCC's procedures to ensure that they were fit for purpose would have taken time and, I can tell the noble Lord, would have required very considerable resources. The cost involved, among other considerations, would have been prohibitive. The Health Professions Council is an established and effective regulator. The proposed transfer of functions to it would bring a number of benefits to the regulation of social workers in England, and I have outlined those. The name ““Health and Care Professions Council”” was decided upon with reference to the views of the Social Work Regulation Oversight Group, of which both the chair of the Social Work Reform Board and the chief executive of the GSCC are members. As part of the process of renaming the Health Professions Council, the name ““Health and Social Care Professions Council”” was considered. However, following research commissioned by the Health Professions Council, it was decided that the name ““Health and Care Professions Council”” most effectively reflected the new remit of the council in a way that was clear to the public, registrants and employers, while maintaining name recognition for service users, employers and registrants. However, to ensure even further clarity for the public, the Health Professions Council's new name will be supported by a strapline: ““Regulating health, psychological and social work professionals””, so it is not as though ““social work”” has been omitted entirely from the heading of this organisation. We also need to ensure that the regulation of social workers in England is flexible enough to enable the regulation of all the activities which a social worker may undertake, now and in the future, and to take account of developments in the profession. It is not, therefore, practical to protect the functions of social workers in England in legislation. Protection of title has ensured that the regulation of professionals can readily adapt to changing roles over time. It also prevents regulation being used in a protectionist way to keep certain functions as the preserve of a specific group of workers. Although we do not think it right to protect the functions of social workers in England for the purposes of professional regulation, we recognise that for the profession to flourish it needs a clear purpose. We are therefore pleased that the College of Social Work has committed to providing clarity on the role of social work in England. I can give the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Meacher and Lady Howarth, some good news, to which I referred briefly, on the position of chief social worker. As they will be aware, the Government have accepted the recommendation that a chief social worker be appointed. We expect that the chief social worker will be in post by the end of this year. Our view is that the office should not be established in statute; this is the approach that we have taken with the Chief Nursing Officer and the Chief Medical Officer, and one that we believe has worked well. Of course, it is the Government's expectation that the chief social worker will work closely will all key social work partners, including those mentioned in the noble Lord's amendment. It is also vital that the role should be transparent, and we are therefore open to the suggestion that the chief social worker should lay an annual report in Parliament. However, we would wish to take a final view on that once the chief social worker had been appointed. On social work students, raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, we are mindful that there should not be a gap in the assurance of the standards of social work students. We intend to provide for the transfer of the voluntary register of social work students to the Health and Care Professions Council pending a full consideration of the best approach to assuring the safety and standard of student social workers. The Health Professions Council has committed to undertaking a review of the risk in relation to students of all the professions it regulates, including social work students. The noble Baroness also mentioned post-registration training. It is the role of the regulator to ensure that its registrants remain fit to practise and that the Health and Care Professions Council has a rigorous risk- based approach to ensure that appropriate continuing professional development is being undertaken. I would be happy to write to her with further details about that. The noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, raised the important issue of best-interest assessors. I want to be clear that we very much value the important work that they do, working with some of the most vulnerable members of our society. As she will know, we have already set standards of those who are, or wish to become, best-interest assessors, including requiring that all best-interest assessors are members of a profession subject to compulsory statutory regulation and undertake training approved by the Secretary of State. Unlike the training of approved mental health professionals, the GSCC currently has no statutory role in approving the training of best-interest assessors. Therefore, we cannot simply transfer the role to the HPC as we have with approved mental health professionals. However, we are aware that the abolition of the General Social Care Council will impact on the current process for approving best-interest assessor courses. We are considering how it should work in the future, including the development of competencies for best-interest assessors, and whether the Health and Care Professions Council should take a role in approval of education and training of best-interest assessors. Until this consideration has been completed, it would not be appropriate to make changes to legislation. If I may, once again, I will write to the noble Baroness on that issue. Before I finish, I speak to government Amendment 246A, which is, I can assure the House, a minor and technical drafting correction. I hope that I have been able to reassure noble Lords of our commitment to strengthening the assurance processes in place for health and social care workers, and that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.