Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Social Workers Registration Act 2003

Scopes of practice for social work profession and prescribed qualifications

5B: Prescribed qualifications

You could also call this:

"What qualifications you need to be a social worker"

Illustration for Social Workers Registration Act 2003

The Board has to decide what qualifications you need to work in each area of social work. They must follow some rules when making these decisions. You need a qualification to protect the public and the number of qualifications should not be so limited that it stops people from becoming social workers. The qualifications should not be too expensive for you or the public.

The Board gets guidance from section 5A to make these decisions. When the Board makes a decision, they must tell everyone by giving notice. This notice is a type of law called secondary legislation, which has its own rules for publication, as explained in Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019.

You can find more information about secondary legislation and its publication requirements in Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS165941.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Job licenses
Previous

5A: Board to determine scopes of practice for social work profession, or

"The Board decides what jobs social workers are allowed to do."

Next

5C: Provisions relating to sections 5A and 5B, or

"Rules for changing or cancelling some notices about social worker registration"

Part 1AScopes of practice for social work profession and prescribed qualifications

5BPrescribed qualifications

  1. The Board must, by notice, prescribe the qualifications for each scope of practice that the Board describes under section 5A.

  2. When prescribing qualifications, the Board must be guided by the following principles:

  3. a qualification (either on its own or together with 1 or more other prescribed qualifications) must be necessary to protect the public:
    1. the number and types of qualifications prescribed for a scope of practice must not be so limited as to unnecessarily restrict the registration of persons as social workers:
      1. the qualifications (in total) prescribed for a scope of practice must not impose undue costs on persons seeking to be registered as social workers or the public.

        1. A notice under this section is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

        Notes
        • Section 5B: inserted, on , by section 8 of the Social Workers Registration Legislation Act 2019 (2019 No 3).
        • Section 5B(1): amended, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).
        • Section 5B(3): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).