GENERAL SOCIAL SERVICES COUNCIL

That this House is both surprised and disturbed that the creation of a statutory regulatory body for social workers, a General Social Services Council, has been ruled out by the Secretary of State for Health; reminds him of the consistent support for such a council by the All Party Panel on Personal Social Services, the constructive response which the panel received only last June from the honourable Member for Battersea then with responsibility for Social Services, the support for such a body among individual workers and many social care organisations and the recent recommendation of the National Commission of Inquiry into the Prevention of Child Abuse; and urges the Secretary of State to reconsider the matter and include it among those issues on which his forthcoming White Paper on Social Services will consult.