Information

The Social Care Institute for Excellence was established by Government in 2001 to improve social care services for adults and children in the United Kingdom. Its web site has lots of useful documents on it, especially a guide to social care research. http://www.scie.org.uk

The Higher Education Academy has a very useful social policy and social work subject centre. It is useful for both undergraduate students and CPD with good resources. Aspect’s handbook What If? is posted there. http://www.swap.ac.uk

The Children’s Workforce Development Council has a useful website http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk

Social Work Scotland has a useful website http://www.socialworkscotland.org.uk

The Trades Union Congress website has lots of useful information, notably on employment rights, equality and the public sector generally. http://www.tuc.org.uk

The Equality and Human Rights Commission brings together the work of the three previous equality commissions – the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality, and the Disability Rights Commission – and also takes on responsibility for the other aspects of equality: age, sexual orientation and religion or belief, as well as human rights. Its website has useful information, not least on the statutory public sector equality duties and the Human Rights Act http://www.equalityhumanrights.com

Hazards Magazine is a very useful source of information and advice, linked to a network of local health and safety campaigns. http://www.hazards.org

Regulators

Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It came into being on 1 April 2007. It brings together four formerly separate inspectorates. It inspects and regulates care for children and young people, and inspects education and training for learners of all ages. Its web site contains copies of its reports as well as the inspection framework it uses. http://www.ofsted.gov.uk

The Care Quality Consortium which is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. It regulates health and adult social care services, whether provided by the NHS, local authorities, private companies or voluntary organisations and is charged with protecting the rights of people detained under the Mental Health Act. Its website contains the reports of the Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission which merged to form it. http://www.cqc.org.uk

The General Social Care Council which is responsible for setting standards of conduct and practice for social care workers and their employers, for regulating the workforce, and for regulating social work education and training. The GSCC is a Non Departmental Public Body established in October 2001 under the Care Standards Act 2000. It is responsible for the Codes of practice www.gscc.org.uk/codes, the Social Care Register and social work education and training. http://www.gscc.org.uk

The Scottish Social Services Council is responsible for registered people who work in social services in Scotland and regulating their education and training. It is responsible for the Scottish Code of Practice. http://www.sssc.uk.com

The Care Council for Wales was established to promote high standards of conduct and practice among social care workers and high standards in their training. Like the GSCC in England, it is responsible in Wales for conduct, training and the Welsh Code of Conduct http://www.ccwales.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=169

The Northern Ireland Social Care Council is responsible for the regulation and training of social care workers and for the upholding of its own Code of Practice http://www.niscc.info/home-1.aspx

Employers

The Department for Children Schools and Families is the ministerial department covering children’s services. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk

The Department of Health is responsible for social care other than for children. In particular its web site is a good starting point for official documents on adult social care and mental health issues, national minimum standards and regulation of social care. http://www.dh.gov.uk

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services is the national leadership in England for directors of children’s services and other children’s services professionals in leadership roles. Its web site includes the ADCS responses to Government policies and consultations. http://www.adcs.org.uk

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services is the national leadership in England for directors of adult social services and other adult services professionals in leadership roles. Its web site includes the ADSS responses to Government policies and consultations http://www.adss.org.uk

The Children’s Workforce Development Council is an employer-led organisation, which collectively represents the main children’s workforce employers across the public, private, voluntary and independent sectors. Its web site has lots of useful guidance and advice. Its web site is the best for accessing all Every Child Matters documents. http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk

The Local Government Association is a voluntary lobbying organisation, acting as the voice of the local government sector. Its website has some useful, more general publications. http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=1

Social Work Scotland is a website set up by the Scottish Government which enables users to access a wide range of information about Changing Lives – the change programme for social work services in Scotland, based on the 21st century review of social work. http://www.socialworkscotland.org.uk

Get news as it happens

Subscribe to Aspect’s occasional news mailing on social care duty of care topics by requesting a copy here

Community Care provides a free excellent newsletter. http://www.communitycare.co.uk

CYPN newsletter is the excellent daily newsletter from Children and Young People Now magazine. http://www.cypnow.co.uk

The Guardian Society supplement produces a daily electronic newsletter. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/societybriefing

Membership Organisations

The National Association of Social Workers in Education is the voice of all those working to promote school attendance and social inclusion in education welfare and has a joint membership agreement with Aspect. NASWE has a joint membership agreement with Aspect. NASWE http://www.naswe.org.uk

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) is the professional body for social work and social workers in the UK. Its members uphold a commitment to good social work practice as outlined in the Association’s Code of Ethics for Social Work – which sets the professional standard to which BASW members subscribe. http://www.basw.co.uk

The Association for Education Welfare Management provides professional support for Managers in Education Social Work (ESW), the Education Welfare Service (EWS) and safeguarding in education. AEWM has a joint membership agreement with Aspect. http://www.aewmweb.com

The Social Work Action Network is a loose UK network of social work practitioners, academics, students and social welfare service users united in their concern that social work activity is being undermined by managerialism and marketisation, by the stigmatisation of service users and by welfare cuts and restrictions. It holds meetings locally and nationally. It is not a trade union. http://www.socialworkfuture.org/?p=31

Shaping Our Lives is a good starting point if you want to identify a relevant user organisation to campaign with. It is an independent user-controlled organisation, think tank and network which started as a research and development project but became an independent organisation in 2002. http://www.solnetwork.org.uk