riding crop case social workers were not registered

You may recall my blog posts last year of the woman who was acquitted of smacking her child with a riding crop. The case initially arose in Ashburton. I have been advised that not one social worker in the Ashburton CYFS office was a registered with the Social Workers Registration Board, including the manager. As at the end of October 2006, fewer than 25 percent of Child, Youth and Family social workers were registered with the Board - and that is a nationwide statistic.

In some cases area managers are not even registered. What's the point of a registration system when most, including senior staff, are not registered?

UPDATE The Social Workers Registration Act 2003 requires that no registered social worker may be employed or engaged as a social worker unless he or she holds an annual practising certificate. Yet I got an email from a woman who described herself as a "journalist in the past", who said some social workers in Ashburton were registered, but under the Timaru office, despite both offices being separate. She wanted to correct errors in my post. So why are only 10 social workers fully registered in Timaru, if that also includes Ashburton?

What she did not reveal in her email was that she herself is a registered social worker in Timaru, but, according to the social workers registration board, she does not hold an annual practising certificate. Either he website is incorrect and shouldbe updated or she is one of many registered social workers who do not hold practising certificates. No staff in Ashburton are registered in the area they work in, however those working in Ashburton who are provisionally registered, (meaning working towards qualifications to be fully registered), are registered under Ashburton. This obviously leads to questions as whether any social workers in Ashburton are fully registered at all.