Health

No declaration you make relating to your health will be visible to your endorser through SCWonline. 
 

Social Care Wales must make sure that everyone who is registered is ‘physically and mentally fit’ to work in social care.

Telling us about a health condition will not necessarily prevent an applicant from being registered or prevent a registered person from working.

Applicants and registered persons must tell us about any physical or mental health condition that affects their ability to carry out any role in social care safely. By safely we mean any physical or mental health condition that may affect a worker’s judgement or performance in any way, or poses a risk to others. If there is any doubt about whether a condition may affect an individual’s ability to carry out their role safely, they should tell us about it anyway. We do not need to know about any short-term illness or something that happened a long time ago. Generally we are looking at long term conditions which require management through medication, this includes disclosing existing conditions where a worker is managing their condition.

It is impossible for us to list all the conditions we need to know about, but they could include:

• conditions that cause seizures,

• conditions that may result in short-term memory loss or lapses in memory, for example, fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis

• serious mental health conditions, and their treatment, for example, bi-polar

• substance dependence, including substance dependence for which treatment is being received,

While we may want to know about a physical or mental health condition an individual has, we are only looking at current impairment. In many cases the condition will be managed and we will not need to make further enquiries. However, there may be some disclosures made where we may ask for consent to seek a health report from a general practitioner or other health professional who knows about the condition. We will take into consideration whether the individual has a good awareness of their condition, is compliant with medication and that the condition is under control. We also take into consideration whether the employer is aware about the individual’s condition.

We ask the following questions from registered persons who have made a health declaration to us:

• Is your employer fully aware about your health condition. If yes, please confirm your consent for me to discuss your health condition with your employer

• Are you currently in work and performing your full role or are you employed on alternative duties

• If you are on a phased return to work, please could you confirm for how long this arrangement is in place

• If you are not in work, please could you indicate the period of time you have been signed off work

• Is your condition managed – please tell us if you are taking medication, receiving counselling, attending your employer’s Occupational Health Service, or seeing any other health professional etc.

• Have any medical reports (apart from occupational health reports) been completed about your health condition. If so please could you tell us about these and approximately when the report(s) were written.

Where an individual is unsure about whether or not to declare a health issue, we are happy to have an informal discussion with them to clarify this.