National Care Standards: Care Homes for People with Mental Health Problems

Annex C Information of SSSC Registration

The Scottish Social Services Council ( SSSC) has set the qualification requirements and the timescales for different groups of workers to be registered with the SSSC. This includes:

• registration of Heads of residential adult and day care services - commencing in December 2005; and
• registration of all adult residential care workers - commencing in 2006/2007.

Heads of residential and adult day care - are workers designated as the 'Fit Person' to act as a manager of a care service for the purposes of regulation of services by the Care Commission.

Adult residential care workers - since there are a wide range of job titles used in adult residential care the SSSC has categorised the parts of the Register for adult residential care workers on the basis of job functions. Therefore, there will be a part of the Register for each of the following categories of adult residential care workers:

Support workers are workers who have delegated responsibility for providing care and support to adults using residential care.

Practitioners are workers who provide care and who have responsibilities for co-ordinating the implementation of care plans. This may include holding key worker responsibilities.

Supervisors are workers who have responsibilities for supervising staff and for overseeing and monitoring the implementation of care plans.

The SSSC may register workers without the relevant qualification subject to the condition that they meet all other criteria for registration and that they gain the qualification within a specified period of time, normally the first three years of the registration period. Access to registration will have to be gradual in order to allow sufficient time for workers to access and achieve the required qualifications.

There is a range of qualifications that can meet the requirement for registration. To obtain a copy of the full list go to www.sssc.uk.com or telephone 01382 207101 or email enquiries@sssc.uk.com