Maree Allison
Fitness to Practise
Manager
MOVING TOWARDS A FITNESS TO
PRACTISE MODEL
PART 1
Brief overview of registration
PART 2
Explanation about what the
department currently does
PART 3
Explanation about what will be
different about a Fitness to Practise
model
PART 1
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF
REGISTRATION
About the Register
• Registration commenced in April 2003
• There are 21 different parts of the Register
• There are currently over 75,000 registrants
and nearly 9,000 applicants
• A further 60,000 - 80,000 expected to
Register over the next five years
Future Dates for
Mandatory Registration
Part of the Register
Date
Register
Opens
Date of
Mandatory
Registration
Support Workers in Care Home
Services for Adults
April 2009
30 September 2015
Supervisors in Housing Support &
Care at Home
July 2014
30 June 2017
Workers in Housing Support & Care
at Home
2017
Expected 2020
All workers new into their role are required to be registered
within six months of starting in the new post, if their part of the
Register is open.
This includes workers in posts in the above categories where
registration is not yet mandatory.
Who is responsible
for Registration?
• Employers are responsible for ensuring they
are employing registered workers – it can take
up to 60 days to process an application for
registration. It can take longer if the
application is referred to Fitness to Practise.
• As part of an inspection of a care service, the
Care Inspectorate are checking the
registration status of staff
• Workers are responsible for maintaining their
registration, including achieving qualifications
MySSSC
Applicants
•Apply online
Registrants
Employers
Universities
•Pay Fees
•Renew
Registration
•Change of Details
•PRTL
•Apply for
Registration
•View employee
details
•Report changes to
employee details
•Endorse
applications
•Maintain
•Student results
•Notification of
commencement
•View student
details
•Report changes to
student details
•Endorse
applications
countersignatories
Fitness to Practise Department hoping to develop MySSSC
next year so that workers/employers can receive updates on
the progress of a case and provide and receive documents
online.
PART 2
FITNESS TO PRACTISE
DEPARTMENT
What we currently do
Decide on suitability for
registration:
APPLICANTS FOR
REGISTRATION
REGISTERED WORKERS
Decide if someone applying
for registration is of good
character, conduct and
competence and therefore
suitable for registration
Investigate allegations of
misconduct against registered
workers to decide whether
they continue to be suitable for
registration.
Phrase “good character, competence or conduct”
comes from our founding legislation
Phrase “misconduct” comes from the Rules that
set out how we register people.
What does “decide on
suitability for
registration” mean?
Case is
referred to
Department
Case Officer
Investigates
•Referrals come
from:
•Obtaining
information from:
•registration dept
•employer
•member of public
(often service user
or family member)
•worker themself
•employer
•police
•courts
•witnesses
•other regulatory
bodies
•worker
Decision made
on suitability
for registration
•Emphasis on public
protection, takes into
account all relevant
factors:
•evidence
•seriousness of
behaviour
•insight of worker
•harm/risk to service
users
•good practice
APPLICANTS FOR
REGISTRATION
1
•Application form/online application received
by registration department
2
•Applicant has declared offences or
disciplinary action
Fitness to Practise department investigates
3
•Decision made about whether they are of
good character/competence/conduct
4
•Registration granted
•Registration with a condition granted
•Registration refused
Examples of applicant cases
• Patterns of offending, even if a long time ago
• Serious offences such as violence
• Offences resulting in serious penalties such as
imprisonment
• Disciplinaries within last 5 years.
Majority of applicants will be registered at conclusion of
the case, often with a condition on their registration.
Examples of cases where registration is refused:
• Recent violent behaviour
• Pattern of serious offending which only stopped recently
• Serious recent dishonesty
REGISTERED WORKERS
1
•Referral received from employer that they
are investigating alleged misconduct/ have
disciplined a worker
2
•Fitness to Practise department investigates.
If risk to public/the worker, may temporarily
suspend from Register
3
•Decision made about whether they have
committed misconduct
4
•Take no action
•Impose warning/condition
•Suspend/suspend with condition
•Remove from Register
Examples of registered worker
cases
• Charged by the police with an offence
• Disciplined at work for failing to answer resident’s buzzer
• Dismissed for entering into a sexual relationship with service
users
• Bullying behaviour towards colleagues
• Suspended for being under the influence of alcohol at work
No formal action will be taken in the majority of cases. Examples
of cases where the worker is removed from the register:
• Verbally abusive behaviour towards service users
• Failing to visit service users
• Financial dishonesty
STATISTICS
• Approx 2% of workers on the register become a Fitness
to Practise case every year
• Approx 5% of workers who apply for registration
become a Fitness to Practise case
• This year, on target to receive 1297 cases about
registered workers and 1107 cases about applicants for
registration
• 25% of cases result in formal action (warning/condition
removal from register/refusal of application for
registration)
WHAT DOES CONDUCT/
MISCONDUCT MEAN?
• For applicants they must be of good character,
competence and conduct
• For registered workers, we may take formal action if
they have committed misconduct
Conduct = behaviour which meets the standards of
conduct and practice expected of social service workers as
laid down in the Code of Practice for social service workers
Misconduct = Behaviour, whether by act or omission,
which falls short of the standard of conduct expected of a
person registered with the SSSC having particular regard
to the Code of Practice for Social Service Workers issued
by the Council under section 53(1)(a) of the Act and the
Registration Rules.
For registered workers
we class as misconduct:
– Sexual abuse of a service user
– Assault of a spouse
– Mistake in administering medication
– Putting a child at risk due to mental illness
SSSC WEBSITE
PART 3
FITNESS TO PRACTISE MODEL:
How is it different?
WHAT IS FITNESS TO PRACTISE?
Care Council Wales:
Fitness to practise considers whether the
Registrant has the skills, knowledge and
character to practise their profession safely and
effectively. This includes:
• Professional performance
• Acts which may have an impact on public
protection
• Acts which may impact on the confidence of
the public in the profession or the regulatory
process.
WHAT WILL IT MEAN FOR THOSE
APPLYING FOR REGISTRATION
• SSSC will still consider character, conduct and
competence
• Employers will still endorse applications for registration
• Applicants and employers will be asked to declare that
the worker is “fit to practise”.
• Applicants will be expected to declare any health or
other issues that affect their fitness to practise
WHAT WILL IT MEAN FOR
REGISTERED WORKERS?
• Employers will have slightly amended obligations to
refer cases to the SSSC - they be required to make a
referral where they think Fitness to Practise may be
impaired.
• SSSC will no longer investigate all cases under the label
of ‘misconduct’
• Will look at whether Fitness to Practise has been
impaired by reason of:
– Misconduct
– Competence
– Health
SO WHAT?
– Change the relationship workers have with the SSSC
as their regulatory body
– Instead of investigations and decisions by the SSSC
being something done to them, workers will take
responsibility for their own fitness to practise
– Fairer to the worker, as issues which affect the
safety of service users can be dealt with without
having to label the worker as having committed
‘misconduct’.
CASE EXAMPLES
Example 1:
We received a report from an employer that one of their
workers was suffering from mental illness and had taken
an overdose whilst at home alone with their young child.
Is this something that could affect service user
safety/reputation of the profession?
Green card = yes/ Red card = no
Does this fall under misconduct, competence or health?
Green card = misconduct
Yellow card = competence
Red card = health
CASE EXAMPLES
Example 2:
An employer disciplined a worker for three failures to
properly record medication administration.
Is this something that could affect service user
safety/reputation of the profession?
Green card = yes/ Red card = no
Does this fall under misconduct, competence or health?
Green card = misconduct
Yellow card = competence
Red card = health
CASE EXAMPLES
Example 3:
An applicant for registration declared two previous
convictions for drink driving.
Is this something that could affect service user
safety/reputation of the profession?
Green card = yes/ Red card = no
Does this fall under misconduct, competence or health?
Green card = misconduct
Yellow card = competence
Red card = health
CASE EXAMPLES
Example 4:
An employer told us that they had received a telephone
call from one of their workers to say that he had been
arrested by the police and then sectioned.
Is this something that could affect service user
safety/reputation of the profession?
Green card = yes/ Red card = no
Does this fall under misconduct, competence or health?
Green card = misconduct
Yellow card = competence
Red card = health
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
• Codes of Practice will be reviewed
• New Rules will be drafted
• New guidance for employers about what to refer and
when to refer it will be drafted
• Consultation with stakeholders will take place
• Timetable for commencement - 2016
Contact the SSSC
The Scottish Social Services Council
Compass House
11 Riverside Drive
Dundee
DD1 4NY
Telephone: - 0845 60 30 891
[email protected]
www.sssc.uk.com