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Almost 19 years, since January 2003.
There have been so many changes over the years it’s difficult to remember what it was like in the beginning. In relation to registration, the most significant changes probably relate to the digital advances we have made. We are on our fourth registration system, each one has introduced improvements to the way we work and how we support registrants and their employers.
I would also say that there has been a change to our approach to registrants. In the beginning we were very set in our ways and the process was what it was. We now listen and have a more understanding approach to our registrants and try our best to make changes where we can.
I remember when the Register opened to social workers on 1 April 2003. We anticipated there would be surge of applications that we would not be able to get through but the surge came quite a bit later. At that time, it was paper applications and we had a whole room full of thousands of applications waiting to be processed. The other significant moment was when the last parts of the Register became mandatory in September 2020 for support workers in housing support and care at home. With over 60,000 workers in these parts of the Register it was a great achievement for us and the sector to have managed to get everyone registered on time.
I think that lots of things have changed for the sector. Lots of good innovative work taking place either with the introduction of ground breaking technology or in the approach to the delivery of care.
I also think the sector is hugely under pressure and in need of significant investment from government.
There needs to be more focus on the critical role the social work, social care and early years workforce provides to Scotland. The work the sector does is often undermined by the focus on health which seems to be viewed as a more important and significant role. We need to do more work to identify social care as a career and highlight it as an attractive and rewarding opportunity for people. The salaries in social care also need to be reviewed and need to increase to reflect the demands of the roles people are undertaking.
I think it helps to professionalise the workforce and bring social work, social care and early years in line with other professions. We have links with organisations who have services across the UK and they have said they notice the difference between workers in Scotland and their workers in England, who are not registered. Their workers in Scotland take their registration responsibilities seriously and are generally more professional.
