CARING FOR CHILDREN Campaigning for quality services for children

Registration

FICE England &Wales / Caring for Children supports the registration of all people who work directly with children and young people and of those who manage and support them.

As things stand, childminders have to be registered by Ofsted before they can care for children, and they work within clear regulations, being inspected regularly. Social workers are now being registered by the General Social Care Council in England and by its counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Residential child care workers are also due to be registered soon.

For the majority of people working with children and young people there is still no form of registration. People who are deregistered in a regulated area of work can move to an unregulated area of activity and continue to underperform or behave inappropriately, putting children at risk. Indeed, unless they are found guilty and placed on the register, people suspected of abuse may continue to work with children and young people.

It is the view of FICE / CfC that steps need to be taken to regulate all people who work with children and young people. This will include nannies, playgroup leaders, residential workers, youth and community workers, holiday scheme workers and a tribe of others. It will be a long job, but if children are to be protected, it needs to be done.

Ultimately, the register should be world-wide. People working with children and young people are no different in other countries. They too need to be regulated. Furthermore, there is a history of abusers going abroad to work in countries which are torn by conflict or disaster, and using the opportunity of civil disorder to abuse children whom they are there to care for.

The task is massive, but the important point is that steps should be taken steadily towards the full implementation of this policy over the next two or three decades.