From Community Care yesterday:

Scottish Government proposals would end provision allowing social workers registered with other UK regulators to practise in Scotland, while it also is seeking views on whether social work assistants should be required to register.

The Scottish Government proposal would end provisions allowing social workers practising in the country to be registered with another UK regulator, but not SSSC.

Under section 52 of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001, no one may call themselves a social worker or work as one in Scotland without being registered as one with the SSSC or with Social Work England, Social Care Wales or the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC).

While most social workers in Scotland are registered with the SSSC, the current legal framework creates “the potential for inconsistency in the professional standards social workers are held to and complicates the process for members of the public seeking to raise concerns”, the Scottish Government said.

For example, the SSSC would not be able to investigate concerns about a social worker working in Scotland who was registered with one of the other UK regulators.

Source: https://www.communitycare.co.uk/content/news/social-workers-practising-in-scotland-to-be-required-to-register-with-sssc-under-consultative-plans

I’m shocked, in 2026, to read this.

As as former schoolteacher, more than 40 years ago, I remember meeting teachers trained in England and hearing of the rigorous and demanding process by which the GTC in Scotland approved or did not, their fitness to teach here.

What was the basis upon which the Scottish Government made the cases for this change.

Under current law (section 52 of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001), a person can work as a social worker in Scotland if registered with the SSSC or with Social Work England, Social Care Wales, or the Northern Ireland Social Care Council.

This creates “the potential for inconsistency in the professional standards social workers are held to and complicates the process for members of the public seeking to raise concerns.”

Specifically, the SSSC cannot investigate fitness-to-practise concerns about someone working in Scotland who is registered only with another UK regulator.

The stated aim is “to promote consistency in professional standards and simplify public reporting mechanisms” so that all social workers working in Scotland are registered with the SSSC. Most employers already require this via contracts, but the proposal would make it a national legislative standard.

Source: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/consultation-paper/2026/07/proposed-changes-sssc-registration-requirements/documents/proposed-changes-sssc-registration-requirements/proposed-changes-sssc-registration-requirements/govscot%3Adocument/proposed-changes-sssc-registration-requirements.pdf