Community Care Community Care Social Work News & Social Care Jobs
Menu
  • Jobs/Careers
    • Jobs
    • Employer Profiles
    • Workforce Insights
    • Podcasts
    • Careers Zone
    ▼
  • Learning
    • Community Care Inform Adults
    • Community Care Inform Children
    ▼
  • Events
    • Masterclasses
    • Webinars
    • Community Care Live
    ▼
  • E-newsletters
  • News
    • Adults
    • Children
    • Social work leaders
    • Workforce
    • Choose Social Work
    • Write for Community Care
    ▼
  • Network
    • The Social Work Community
    ▼
  • Search
  • ID
    Community Care
    • Menu
    • Jobs/Careers
      • Jobs
      • Employer Profiles
      • Workforce Insights
      • Podcasts
      • Careers Zone
    • Learning
      • Community Care Inform Adults
      • Community Care Inform Children
    • Events
      • Masterclasses
      • Webinars
      • Community Care Live
    • E-newsletters
    • News
      • Adults
      • Children
      • Social work leaders
      • Workforce
      • Choose Social Work
      • Write for Community Care
    • Network
      • The Social Work Community
    • Search
      • Register
      • Login
      Jobs Live Inform

      How easy is it for social workers to make time for CPD?

      The three-month window for English social workers to renew their right to practise opens on 1 September. But how easy is it for practitioners to meet CPD requirements and make time for learning more broadly?

      By Anastasia Koutsounia on August 27, 2024 in Workforce
      Photo by Community Care

      Readers’ Take is a weekly series by Community Care that showcases your opinions on trending topics. To take part, vote in our weekly poll and share your thoughts in the comments section of the related article. You can read previous articles from this series here.

      The annual social work registration period for practitioners in England has arrived again.

      In under a week, Social Work England will open the three-month window, from 1 September to 30 November, for practitioners to renew their right to practise.

      The renewal process requires social workers to complete an application form, pay a £90 registration fee and submit two pieces of continuing professional development (CPD), one of which must be peer-reviewed.

      Yet with social workers facing heavy and complex caseloads and often working long hours, fulfilling their CPD obligations, as well as making time for learning more broadly, can be a significant challenge.

      Flourish logoA Flourish chart

      A Community Care poll of nearly 900 practitioners found that 90% struggled to make time for CPD, besides mandatory training, with 59% describing it as “very difficult”.

      Only 13% said it was “easy” to find time for CPD.

      A subscription to Community Care Inform Adults or Children makes it easy for you to fulfil Social Work England’s annual requirements to record continuing professional development (CPD) so that you can stay on the register.

      Find out why by reading our comprehensive guide on how you can use Inform to make the most of your CPD.

       

      What has your experience with CPD been like?

      readers' take, Social Work England, social work registration

      More from Community Care

      Related articles:

      Does discrimination play a role in fitness to practise processes? Register Now sign on a deskThree-quarters of social workers still to complete registration renewal with one month to go
      ‘Worrying’ number of children wrongly placed in supported accommodation, says Ofsted chief
      Social Worker – Children’s Assessment and Safeguarding

      3 Responses to How easy is it for social workers to make time for CPD?

      1. David August 27, 2024 at 6:33 pm #

        It’s absolutely appalling

      2. Alec Fraher August 27, 2024 at 10:26 pm #

        According to Schon (86ish) reflective practice is a myth ~ never actually happens as practice unless harnessed to double loop learning through supervision; if the model of supervision is something like the Peulet-Hawkins approach.

        The adage we know more than we can tell (Polyani) is echoed throughout all parallel processes ie the peulet-hawkins stuff and especially with children and vulnerable adults and older people where capacity issues are in play.

        Where’s the feature articles on Supervision in Social Work ~ come on CC; what did Eileen Munroe mean by Social Work is a Complex Adaptive System? And how does this impact on the management and supervision of sw’s?

        How does attachment, anxiety and abandonment play out systemically? Is it useful?

        What are the developmental axioms for child and adult theories of mind that are in use ratherthan merely espoused?

        What’s the actual doing-ethic or Care Structure known as Sorge (Heidegger).

        How has Analytical Philosophy and neoliberalusm sandwiched Continental Philosophy?

        What’s the basis of our knowledge ~ does reflexivity have value anymore?

        What is extreme commensurability and how does it manifest and differ from indeterminacy and incommensurability?

        Second nature learning requires that fear is driven out and kept out. Is SWE a learning organisation? If the demands of accounting aren’t natural and flow then there’s a problem ~ if the problem is SWE then do something ~ it’s the 101 of waste management requirements which incidentally shape the SWE thinking and behaviour ~ the muda,muri and mura ~ the approach isn’t anything that a Lean or Kaizen or Six Sigma black belt would accept in any other industry! And, is wholly inappropriate for Social Work and Social Services. Period.

      3. £90 poorer September 3, 2024 at 10:21 am #

        Actually it’s very easy. Write up any old tosh and get your mate to “peer review” it while you receprocate, get the £90 off safe in the knowledge that likelihood of SWE reading it is more unlikely than sightings of Loch Ness monster. No social worker should somersault through endless angst over this. Get it off towards the end of the process and the backlog will see you through. Also it’s not as if SWE are serious let alone capable of ensuring safe practice or raising standards is it? Do your job with commitment, be concientious, take pride in your role and your achievements. Leave the waffle and pretence to SWE and its fellow travellers.

      Job of the week

      Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council logo

      Children’s Social Workers – Level 2/3 – Children & Families First

      Employer Profiles

      • Bournemouth beach Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
      • Hampshire County Council
      • A picture of an Oxford college quad Oxfordshire County Council
      • Two colleagues talking South Gloucestershire Council
      • Wokingham town centre image Wokingham Borough Council

      Workforce Insights

      • Would you move from the city to work in a more rural setting?
      • Webinar: building a practice framework with the influence of practitioner voice
      • Photo: Microgen/ Adobe ‘They don’t have to retell their story’: building long-lasting relationships with children and young people
      • Podcast: returning to social work after becoming a first-time parent
      • How managers are inspiring social workers to progress in their careers
      • Hand putting wooden cube block on blue background with word CAREER and copy space for your text. Business career planning growth to success concept Workforce Insights – showcasing a selection of the sector’s top recruiters

      Featured jobs

      Sign up for our social work emails

      More from Community Care

      • Network

        The networking platform for social workers


        Connect with peers
      • Jobs

        The latest job opportunities within the social work sector

        Search for jobs
      • Events

        The largest free to attend event for the social work sector

        Register now
      • Learn

        The online learning and practice resource for social workers

        Find out more

      Connect with us

      • facebookFacebook
      • XX
      • LinkedInLinkedIn
      • InstagramInstagram

      Topics

      • Adults
      • Children
      • Workforce
      • Social work leadership

      More information

      • About us
      • Contact us
      • Write for Community Care
      • Accessibility
      • Advertise with us
      • Privacy
      • Terms & conditions
      • Cookies
      Mark Allen Group
      © MA Education 2025. St Jude's Church, Dulwich Road, Herne Hill, London SE24 0PB, a company registered in England and Wales no. 04002826. MA Education is part of the Mark Allen Group. All Rights Reserved