What are my responsibilities as an employer?

As an employer in the social care sector, you play a vital role in helping to make sure we have a safe, skilled and appropriately supported workforce in Wales. This information details your responsibilites and how we can support you. You can also find a summary of resources available to support you here.

As a registered manager or Responsible Individual, it’s your responsibility to make sure your staff are registered with us. For your information:

• all social care workers have six months from the start date of their role to register with us
• social workers must register before they can practise as a social worker in Wales
• student social workers need to register at the start of their course and must remain registered for the duration of their studies
• all social care managers must be registered before their first day in a new job.

You can find who must register and why here.

You can search the Register to see if your current or prospective staff are registered.

Your organisation needs at least one endorser or signatory. You can find out about the details of this role and information about how to apply as an endorser or signatory here. It’s important your staff know who the endorser or signatory is for your organisation so they can select them as part of the application process.

If you’re the endorser or signatory for your organisation, you’ll have access to your organisation and staff details via SCWonline.

You can see staff who work for your organisation in the ‘My Organisation’ section of your SCWonline account. Here you’ll find any outstanding actions you’ll need to complete like endorsing an application or confirming a removal. You can also see when your staff are due to renew or pay an annual fee.

If an individual leaves your organisation, you can update this information in SCWonline.

To remove an employee from your organisation list:

• select ‘edit’ next to their name

• then select ‘End Employment’

• answer the questions and the individual will no longer appear in your list.

This will not remove them from the Register but will remove them from your organisation list.

Whilst individuals should update their own employment records, it’s good practice for you to check your organisation list is up to date. This will also prevent you from receiving unnecessary emails about individuals who've left your employment. We may still need to contact you if you’re their last known employer.

It’s your staff members’ responsibility to maintain their own registration, but you may need to help them complete registration and renewal applications. Here’s more information about how to apply to register and how to renew registration.

Part of your responsibility as an employer is to make sure your staff are appropriately trained and skilled to do their role. This means you should provide relevant Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities. When you endorse a renewal, we may ask you to confirm your staff member has completed relevant CPD.

There are different reasons for why an individual may be removed from the Register. Find out more about why someone may be removed from the Register here.

We’ll start the removal process if a member of your staff doesn’t pay a fee or doesn’t apply to renew their registration. We’ll let the lead signatory at your organisation and the individual know that the removal process has started. You should respond to this notification via SCWonline and ask your staff member to contact us.

Individuals can request to be removed from the Register if they’re no longer working in social care and don’t need to be registered. When someone asks to be removed from the Register, we’ll ask you to confirm they’re no longer working at your organisation and that you have no outstanding concerns.

You should respond to these notifications to help make the process as efficient and as smooth as possible for both yourself and the individual.

The Code of Professional Practice for social care workers and the Code of Professional Practice for employers of social care workers outline a set of rules and standards for workers and employers to adhere to in their jobs. The Code for employers describes what’s expected of you to ensure we have a safe, skilled and appropriately supported workforce. Employers of social care workers are expected to promote the use of the Code and take it into account when you’re making any decisions about the conduct and practice of your staff.

Employers, workers or members of the public can raise a concern about a registered social worker, social care worker or social care manager. As an employer you have a responsibility to make sure that timely, relevant referrals are made to us.

We recognise that you may be able to appropriately resolve many of the concerns that arise in the workplace yourself. You can use this guidance about investigating concerns in your workplace alongside your organisation’s policies and procedures.

Here’s information about what types of concerns we can investigate.

If you need to raise a concern with us, you can email ftp@socialcare.wales and make a referral about an individual. You’ll need to include the registered person’s:

• full name

• registration number

• date of birth.

Please provide a summary of the allegations and let us know whether the individual is currently still working.

Workers need to have a relevant qualification to register with us. You can find out more about qualifications for specific job roles. We recommend that social care workers complete the All Wales induction framework (AWIF) within the first 6 months of employment. Here’s more information about what the AWIF is and why it’s important for new workers and employers.

If a worker doesn’t have the relevant qualification required to register with us, you can complete an employer assessment for social care worker registration. Employers should use this guide to decide if a social care worker is fit to practise and has the appropriate understanding to apply for registration with us.

Social care workers who use the employer assessment route to register need to complete one of the current qualifications listed in the qualification framework. We expect most social care workers to achieve this qualification within their first three-year registration period, but all social care workers have six years to complete it.

Here’s more advice for learners, managers and employers about completing qualifications.

If your staff member holds a qualification which doesn’t appear on either the qualification framework nor the precedence list, they may be able to have their qualification assessed for equivalency. Here’s more information about qualification equivalence assessment.

You can find out information about early years and childcare on our website here.