Is your employee registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers? Do they refer to themselves as a “social worker” or “social service worker”?
In Ontario, only individuals registered with the College are permitted to use the protected titles “social worker,” “registered social worker,” “social service worker” and “registered social service worker,” their short forms or French equivalents. Those who use the protected titles illegally or misrepresent themselves as a social worker or a social service worker are considered unregulated practitioners and put the public at risk.
List of unregulated practitioners
The College’s mandate is to protect the public from unqualified, incompetent or unfit practitioners. As part of its public protection mandate, the College maintains a list of unregulated practitioners on its website. We encourage employers to visit this page on a regular basis.
The latest addition to the list is Carolyn Billy, who is also known as Carolyn Stromski. We are now aware of a number of instances where this individual obtained a job under the name of Carolyn Billy, and fraudulently told employers that she was registered with the College under a different name, providing the name of an actual registered member.
Check the Online Register
In addition to checking the Unregulated Practitioners webpage, we strongly encourage employers to search the College’s Online Register whenever they are hiring a social worker or a social service worker to ensure they are registered. The Online Register is the best source of accurate and up to date information on all registered social workers and registered social service workers in Ontario.
If you, as an employer, have any questions about the validity of the name used by a potential employee (particularly if the name on the Register is different from the one on documentation provided), please contact the College at info@ocswssw.org. If you are aware of any individual who is illegally using a protected title and/or holding themselves out as a social worker or social service worker, you may report this information to the College at titleprotection@ocswssw.org.