registration of social workers

An organization's or government's listing (or registry) of people who identify themselves or are identified as social workers. This is a form of quality assurance and sometimes public regulation that has a minimal degree of regulatory power (compared to licensing and certification). The organization usually specifies some qualification criteria to permit a worker to be included in the registration. For example, in the NASW Register of Clinical Social Workers, the applicant for registration must pay a fee, have a master's or doctoral degree from an accredited school of social work, have two years or 1,500 hours of postmaster's professionally supervised clinical social work practice, and be a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW) or be licensed or certified in a state that requires an examination.