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27 Mar 2020

SSSC registration Social service workforce

Changes to the law to support social services

The UK and Scottish coronavirus legislation include some important changes for social service regulation so we can support the workforce to keep on delivering high quality services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Temporary Register for social workers

The Coronavirus Act 2020 creates a new part of our Register for Temporary Social Workers.

People who can apply for registration are:

  • social workers who left the Register in the last five years
  • final year social work students who have completed 75% of their practice placements and reached the required academic standard.

There is no fee for joining this part of the Register.

We will be able to start processing applications when we receive a direction from Scottish Ministers and are expecting that direction shortly. When we do we’ll get in touch with eligible social workers and students to invite them to apply.

We’re also working with partner organisations to find the best way to match the people on our Register with the service that needs them.

Social workers not working on the frontline

If your organisation employs social workers in roles that aren’t frontline, please think about whether they can be redeployed into frontline roles. We’re working on ways to help coordinate redeployment and will have further information next week.

Employing and redeploying social care workers

The Coronavirus Act 2020 has extended the time period for social service workers to get registered from six months to 12 months.

If you’ve already submitted your application to us, we’ll continue processing it.

If you’re new to the workforce or redeployed into a new role, you can apply for registration if you want, but we know that may not be a priority just now.

If you have any queries about the changes please contact us using the web form on our Contact us page.

Contact information

Lorraine Wakefield
Communications Manager
Scottish Social Services Council
communications@sssc.uk.com