The Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni, has proposed legislative changes to the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill, to strengthen the regulation of social workers and better protect public safety.

The Bill will make the registration of social workers mandatory.

The proposed changes to the Bill will:

• require employers to report allegations of serious misconduct by social workers
• promote ongoing professional development by social workers
• create additional safeguards relating to the power to obtain information about social workers and the offence of impersonating as a social worker
• provide greater flexibility for the Social Workers Registration Board to respond to situations affecting individual social workers provide for scopes of practice within the registration process, which aligns with health practitioners

You can find more information on these changes on the MSD website at:

https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/work-programmes/social-worker-registration/index.html