Large majority of social workers register under new regulatory system

A last-minute rush has seen the vast majority of social workers register as required under a new regulatory system before the deadline of last Friday.

By the weekend, over 2,300 of the State’s 2,500 social workers had registered with Coru, which is charged with regulating health and social care professionals.

Those social workers who have not registered could face serious consequences, Coru has warned. From this month anyone using the title social worker illegally may be prosecuted and, if convicted, could be fined up to €5,000 and/or sentenced to six months in jail.

Many employers, including the HSE, insist on registration for social workers, according to the chief executive of Coru, Ginny Hanrahan.

The new arrangements for social workers are the first step towards regulation of 12 professions along the lines of the system already in place for doctors and nurses. Radiographers are the next profession to be regulated, followed by clinical biochemists, dietitians, medical scientists, occupational therapists, orthoptists, physiotherapists, podiatrists, psychologists, and speech and language therapists.

Complaints procedure
The system provides for complaints against members of the 12 professions to be handled in a similar manner to those submitted against doctors to the Medical Council. For the first time, serious complaints will be heard in public at fitness-to- practice inquiries expected to start next year.

Registration with Coru costs €295 a year but at the talks on a follow-up to the Croke Park agreement it was agreed that professionals would bear only €100 of this cost until 2016 with the rest of the bill being footed by the Department of Health.

When the process is complete, Coru will be responsible for regulating 20,000 professionals, about the same number as are registered with the Medical Council. Ultimately, the plan is to merge the Medical Council, Coru and the regulators for pharmacy, dentistry and nursing into one single super-regulator.

The registration of the 12 professions was held up by delays in appointing registration boards for each area, but this process is now nearing completion. A number of professions active in the health sector are not covered by the process established under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005. Minister for Health James Reilly has said he will examine whether counsellors and psychotherapists should come under the scope of the new arrangements.