Sepuloni CarmelHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development): Thank you very much Madam Chair. I was going to stop to allow a few speeches before I got to my feet but I thought actually I will respond to the Hon Louise Upston just to provide the context that she's asked for with regards to Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 187 that is being introduced into Part 1 here today. Can I just say before I go into the SOP—just to give it a little bit of context even further back—we need to keep in mind here that the original social workers registration legislation was introduced in 2003. At that time it was a voluntary system but with the intention that we would transition to a mandatory system. The intention however was not to wait 16 years. So this is a long time overdue and so can I say there is a sense of urgency with regards to the overall time frame and I think it is as I've said way overdue and it is time that we moved on this.To put it into context again there was a member's bill introduced to the House in 2015 by myself that didn't have the support of the Government at the time but then there was an inquiry that was instigated by the Government through the Social Services Committee in 2016. However we still only got to the point where a bill was introduced to this House the day before the House rose prior to the election. So it has been a very slow process I have to say.Now with respect to the SOP and the concerns that have been raised about whether or not we have a mandate or whether or not we've gone through correct process it's really important to note that something like 70 percent of the submitters asked that there be provisions in the legislation for scopes of practice. Seventy percent of the submissions that came through indicated that they wanted there to be provisions for scopes of practice.Hon Louise Upston: So why didn't the officials recommend it? Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: The question that's coming from the member to my left the Hon Louise Upston is why the officials did not include it. The officials were really clear that they felt that the purpose of the bill that was introduced by the previous Government was much more narrow in that it was focused on protecting the title as opposed to the role that was being undertaken by a social worker. So as a Government and as a Minister we had to make the decision whether we would extend out beyond what the original intent of the bill was. So that is the decision that I've made as the Minister that actually I thought yes we should because what I didn't want was for us to end up waiting another 16 years before we consider the next part of this which is exploring scopes of practice.To be fair I have to say I was nervous about the idea of trying to formulate scopes of practice in such a condensed period of time but we managed to negotiate that position so that the SOP allows for the creation of those scopes of practice but they are not included in the legislation. We haven't rushed ahead with the creation of those and so I think that it is actually a very well-thought-through process. I have to say that with regards to the SOP the Ministry of Social Development has been working closely with social workers through the Social Work Alliance which is a cross-sector representation body of social workers. It includes the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers it included the Social Workers Registration Board it includes Tangata Whenua Social Workers Association and it includes—the member Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki read them all out last night and now I can't remember all of the organisations. But it basically includes all of the representative bodies and people that have a vested interest in ensuring that the profession is protected and those that they're there to serve are protected. So this has been well-thought-through and hasn't just been developed by the Ministry of Social Development. It has been done working closely with the Social Work Alliance and with social workers. We did that to ensure that we were reflecting the needs and best interests of the social worker sector and as I said the people that they work for.Just to run through what the changes are the following changes have been made to the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill through this SOP and here we go. The provisions that have been inserted for scopes of practice for social workers will be based on a longstanding approach in the health sector where each profession defines what its practitioners' qualifications and skills are including specialisations as needed. They provide a clear statement of what can be expected of a social worker as well as a basis for professional accountability.It also includes a new offence which has been created to enforce existing confidentiality obligations about client information. I don't think anyone would argue that that isn't the right thing to do. Employers will be required to report concerns about a social worker's competence to the board if the employee resigns or is dismissed for reasons relating to their competence.A new power has been created that requires people to supply information needed to prove that someone is claiming to be or is practising as a social worker without being registered. It has been clarified that the Minister is able to issue a direction under section 103 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 concerning registration policy but not relating to the registration of individual social workers by inserting the word individual" before "social workers" in section 102 of the Social Workers Registration Act 2003.The requirement that non-practising social workers can be required to cancel their registration has been removed. The board is now mandated to recognise ways of undertaking professional development as a required function. The SOP also included a number of other administrative changes and improvements around the operation of the Social Workers Registration Act and to align it more closely to the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act.So I think we've been really clear and I know that there are concerns from the Opposition about process but as I said we're looking at a process that's gone back 16 years here and we don't want to wait another 16 years to amend the bill to actually put in there a provision around scopes of practice—it's unnecessary. We know that this is what the sector overwhelmingly desires to happen here. We know that it's not just in their best interests but it's in the best interests of the people that they're there to serve.We know that the submissions reflect the need for this to happen and those submissions obviously were given directly to the Social Services and Community Committee. So what I will say is that I would hope that we can get agreement in the committee today because this has been one of those issues where we've had cross-Parliament support for this. We know why it's important. Yes there's a minor change in that we have extended beyond what the original intent of the bill was but I don't think that that's unreasonable actually. We're here to make changes that benefit New Zealanders and as I said why would we wait any longer when we don't need to?"