This year we have celebrated an enormous landmark for the social care sector as, for the first time, thousands of social workers across the country are now registered professionals; trained, checked, and held accountable for their work. The year ended with the implementation of protection of title, a legal restriction to protect the title ‘social worker’, and to ensure only those who are registered as social workers can practise as and use this title. By the 1 April 2005 deadline the GSCC had received more than 60,000 applications to register. The publication of the Green Paper, “Independence, Well-being and Choice: Our vision for the future of Social Care for Adults in England”, in March 2005, emphasised the important and changing role of social workers, as they became the first group to join the first ever Social Care Register and as the title ‘social worker’ became protected. This is a chance to rejuvenate the social work profession and rebuild public confidence in its important contribution to people’s lives.