A social worker ‘in work or outside work’: The benefits and dilemmas of registration

Modernising Social Services (Department of Health 1998: executive summary) argued that there were ‘too many examples of problems and failures in social services. As a result of these, there is very low public confidence in our social services’. In response, the Care Standards Act 2000 introduced measures to build competence and strengthen social workers’ accountability to the public. Four nation-specific regulatory bodies, ‘care councils’, were created, the qualifying diploma was replaced by the degree and in 2005, compulsory registration was introduced.