Social worker registration

For a number of years the Left has  demanded that all social workers be compulsorily  registered. The new Social Development spokesperson for Labour has some 'shocking' statistics:

“Since the system of voluntary registration was introduced in 2003 there have been seventeen cases of reported misconduct of people who worked as social workers or community workers, sixteen of which were unregistered,” says Carmel Sepuloni.

An average of 1.3 cases of misconduct a year.

Apparently, according to the last census, there are around 14,000 social workers.

There were  146,657 care and protection notifications to CYF in the 2012/13 year alone. That's just one arena in which social workers operate.

A great number - the majority - of social workers remain unregistered for reasons best known to them. But any additional bureaucratic requirement that would deter people from becoming or remaining social workers will only reduce their numbers.

Then Labour will be up in arms about an overloaded workforce. For instance, Jacinda Ardern:

“CYF staff are under enormous pressure. The number of notifications it receives has more than doubled over the last six years, averaging 400 a day.
“It has confirmed social workers, who have higher caseloads than in many other countries, are struggling with both the increased demand and higher standards of investigation as cases become more complex and difficult.
“Ms Bennett admits resources are stretched. She should also admit that this isn’t about human error but about human overload.”

It seems fairly obvious why calls to make registration mandatory have not come to fruition.