The watchdog that monitors Social Work England has written to cabinet ministers to raise concerns over chronic delays to fitness to practise (FtP) cases.

In its latest report on the regulator, covering 2024, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) said Social Work England had failed to meet its standard on the fairness and efficiency of its FTP system, for the third year running. The regulator met all 17 of the PSA’s other standards, in a generally positive review.

Social Work England did not meet the remaining standard (standard 15) because of ongoing delays in completing FTP cases, with no improvement in timeliness during 2024, said the PSA.

Concerns escalated to cabinet ministers

As a result, PSA chair Caroline Corby has written to education secretary Bridget Phillipson and health and social care secretary Wes Streeting to raise its concerns about the situation with them.

While she acknowledged that Social Work England was “taking steps to improve its processes and learn from the delays”, this had not generated improvements.

In separate letters, Corby set out the consequences of the issue to Phillipson and Streeting: “Every stakeholder that we met with for our 2023-24 performance review, and most stakeholders that provided us with written feedback, raised their concerns about this issue.

“For registrants, fitness to practise delays can have a significant impact on their wellbeing and cause financial hardship. For people raising concerns with Social Work England, these delays can mean they are waiting years for a resolution to their concern, which can be particularly difficult where the alleged conduct has had a significant impact on their life.”

Delays at all stages of fitness to practise process

Latest figures show significant delays at all stages of Social Work England’s FTP process:

• Triage: Cases that completed the triage stage in October to December 2024 took an average of 35 weeks to do so, compared with 28 weeks in July to September and 22 weeks in April to June last year. At triage, Social Work England staff determine whether the concerns about the social worker merit investigation.
• Investigation: While the average age of cases that completed the investigations process has fallen steadily, from 68 weeks in January to March 2024 to 60 weeks in October to December last year, the average age of remaining cases rose from 62 to 74 weeks over this time. This compares to a quarterly target of 56 weeks for October to December 2024.
• Case examiner: During October to December 2024, cases took an average of 13 weeks to complete the case examiner process, the same as in the previous quarter and just above the target of 12 weeks. At this stage, pairs of examiners review the investigation report to determine whether the concerns about the social worker could realistically be proved and, if so, whether their fitness to practise could be found to be impaired.
• Final hearings: Social Work England held just five final hearings in October to December 2024, down from 13 in the previous two quarters, and from 64 in April to June 2023. The number of open cases at the hearings stage rose from 386 as of June 2024 to 421 at the end of last year.

Causes of delay 

The causes of the delays are multiple, including the regulator receiving higher than expected numbers of FTP concerns since its inception in 2019 and having cases delayed by family court proceedings.

More recently, it has struggled to adequately staff its triage and investigations teams and has had to reduce the number of hearings it holds due to lack of budget.

The PSA cited action that Social Work England had taken in response, including piloting having two-person, rather than three-person, panels, to increase capacity to conclude more hearings, and reviewing adjournments in hearings to identify opportunities to prevent future breaks in proceedings.

The regulator was also providing more support to investigators to help them progress their most complex cases, while having case examiners share learning with investigators to prevent adjournments being necessary at the case examiner stage, said the PSA.

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Performance ‘comparable to worst performing regulators’

However, the watchdog, which also oversees nine health professional regulators, stressed that these actions had not led to improvements in the timeliness of cases, where Social Work England’s performance was currently “comparable to the worst performing regulators in this area”.

In its report, the PSA referenced a joint statement made by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), Social Workers Union (SWU) and UNISON in May 2025 raising concerns about the impact of FTP delays on the social workers concerned.

In response to the PSA report, SWU general secretary John McGowan said: “It has been almost a year since SWU, BASW, and UNISON jointly wrote to Social Work England to express our deep concerns about the regulator’s ongoing and increasing delays in processing fitness to practise cases.

“Since that time, the PSA has concluded that Social Work England has not improved performance in this area, its hearing stage backlog has continued to grow, and many people are rightly still raising concerns about how long the process is taking.

Social workers ‘experiencing stress beyond belief’

“The 421 social workers in England with open cases at the end of 2024 deserve better support than this and it is a shame that the regulator has been classified by PSA as ‘comparable to the worst performing regulators in this area’.

“No matter the outcome of their cases these social workers are experiencing stress beyond belief.

“I hope this report convinces Social Work England to continue with their engagement with the four asks in our joint letter to improve their fitness to practises process.”

These were: ensuring investigations were more “collaborative and thorough”; providing case examiners with updated guidance and training, to help them take account of contextual factors in their decisions; developing alternative outcomes for social workers who have been awaiting a hearing for years, and adopting a “more reasonable approach” to the voluntary removal of social workers subject to FTP processes from the register.

Social Work England ‘has plans for improvement’

Giving the regulator’s response to the PSA report, Social Work England chief executive Colum Conway said: “While timeliness in our fitness to practise process continues to be a challenge, we do have a pathway to achieving standard 15 which requires additional funding over time.

“The delays in case progression are unacceptable for us and for everyone involved.”

A spokesperson for the regulator added: “Plans and actions are already in place for improvement, and more details will be published in our business plan for 2025 to 2026.”

Fee rise ‘should enable more resource for fitness to practise’

In relation to increasing funding, Corby told Phillipson and Streeting that Social Work England’s proposed 33% increase in practitioner fees from September “should enable it to devote more resources to fitness to practise”.

The Social Work England spokesperson said that “the additional income from any potential fee increases would support us to deliver all our regulatory objectives and goals with a focus on improving timeliness in our fitness to practise process”.

However, McGowan warned that SWU members were concerned that the regulator was “now considering passing the cost of improvement attempts along to social workers – a workforce already strained by over a decade of budget cuts, ongoing recruitment and retention issues, and the cost-of-living crisis”.

The fee increase will only boost Social Work England’s overall level of income if it is not offset by reductions in DfE grant.

Shifting balance of income from government to social worker

Social Work England’s justification for the increase is to shift the balance of income it receives towards social workers and away from the DfE, whose share rose from 52% to 57% from 2020-21 to 2023-24 to help the regulator deal with rising fitness to practise costs.

The spokesperson added: “Our budget is overseen by the Department for Education and is typically agreed annually, including the level of grant in aid, with no capacity to hold funds in reserve over multiple years.

“We continue to work with our sponsor, the Department for Education, to review our overall resourcing needs. We anticipate that our overall level of income will continue to be determined in this way.”

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Social workers in England are waiting longer for decisions on whether their fitness to practise (FtP) will be investigated following a referral to the regulator.

Cases that completed the triage stage in October to December 2024 took an average of 35 weeks to do so, compared with 28 weeks in July to September and 22 weeks in April to June last year, according to a report to Social Work England’s board meeting on 31 January this year.

Issues at triage stage

And the number of cases that completed triage per quarter fell significantly over this time, from 350 in April to June to 291 in the last quarter of 2024.

At triage, Social Work England staff determine if there are reasonable grounds to investigate concerns about a practitioner and whether the concerns suggest the social worker’s fitness to practise is currently impaired.

If these tests are met, the social worker’s case is passed on to the regulator’s investigations team to look into, but in most cases they are not. In October to December 2024, 81% of cases were closed at the triage stage.

Increasing caseload

While the average age of the remaining triage caseload fell slightly, from 29 to 28 weeks, in October to December 2024, this was well above the target for the quarter of 16 weeks.

Also, the number of open triage cases rose from 1,070 to 1,110 in the last quarter of 2024. By comparison, at the end of 2023, there were 945 open cases in triage.

The trends have been driven by staffing and management shortages within Social Work England’s triage team.

The regulator recruited six new staff into the team last year in order to boost its capacity. However, it told Community Care that, because of other staff leaving or moving roles, the new recruits were used to replace them, rather than to add capacity.

A spokesperson said that the timeliness of cases had also been affected by the regulator’s “careful management of concerns that reference family court proceedings”, adding that it was “confident that decision-making is high-quality, proportionate and effective”.

Addressing staff and management shortages

The board report said that a new assistant director joined towards the end of 2024, and a new head of service has joined since.

The spokesperson said that, as well having a new senior team in place, the regulator was increasing capacity within the triage service by recruiting more cases officers and an additional triage lead and manager.

“The new management team will be developing longer-term plans to address performance trends seen over the past 12 months,” the spokesperson added.

Length of fitness to practise investigations

The issues at triage come in the context of longstanding challenges in relation to the timeliness of fitness to practise cases at all stages of the process.

While the average age of cases that completed the investigations process has fallen steadily, from 68 weeks in January to March 2024 to 60 weeks in October to December last year, the average age of remaining cases rose from 62 to 74 weeks over this time. This compares to a quarterly target of 56 weeks for October to December 2024.

Social Work England said this reflected “both the time cases are taking to conclude at triage, and several longstanding investigations that are taking time to resolve”. It has also faced staffing and management shortages in the investigations service.

Performance at case examiner stage

During October to December 2024, cases took an average of 13 weeks to complete the case examiner process, the same as in the previous quarter and just above the target of 12 weeks.

At this stage, pairs of staff examine the investigation report to determine whether there is a realistic prospect that concerns could be proved, and if so, whether the social worker’s fitness to practise could be found to be impaired.

It said performance in this area had been affected by about 15% of cases requiring support from the regulator’s legal team, generally in relation to the use of family court information.

Reduced capacity for hearings

An ongoing challenge facing Social Work England has been its reduced capacity – driven by budget constraints – to hold final hearings to determine a social worker’s fitness to practise.

It held just five such hearings in October to December 2024, down from 13 in the previous two quarters, and from 64 in April to June 2023. The number of open cases at the hearings stage has risen from 386 as of June 2024 to 421 at the end of the year.

How long social workers are waiting

The average age of these cases was 176 weeks with the social workers concerned having waited an average of 125 weeks – two years and five months – since they had been referred for a hearing. These figures had risen from 148 and 69 weeks, respectively, a year previously.

At the start of the 2024-25 financial year, Social Work England budgeted to hold just 34 hearings in 2024-25. However, in September last year, it increased this to 81, after identifying additional capacity in its budget following a mid-year review.

The regulator’s spokesperson said that 74 of those had been concluded or listed to be heard before the end of March 2025.

While, 81 remained its target for the year, the spokesperson added that this was dependent on the availability of parties, witnesses and legal resource, which, according to the board report, Social Work England had faced challenges in securing.

Social Work England is to hold more fitness to practise hearings this year as its case backlog continues to grow.

The regulator plans to hold 81 final hearings to determine a social workers’ fitness to practise in 2024-25, up from a previously planned 34.

Most of the additional hearings will take place from January to March 2025, subject to the availability of parties and witnesses.

Budget found to increase hearings numbers

A lack of budget to hold hearings has been a key factor in mounting fitness to practise case backlogs over the past year.

But Social Work England said that it had “identified some additional capacity” within its 2024-25 budget following a mid-year review.

As of 30 September 2024, the regulator had accrued a £1.5m underspend on its budget, primarily due to lower than expected staffing costs and an accounting change that had pushed some legal fees into future years.

Mounting case backlogs

The decision to increase hearings numbers comes with case backlogs continuing to rise. According to Social Work England’s latest board report, issued last month:

• The number of open cases awaiting a hearing rose from 386 to 399 in the second quarter of 2024-25 (1 July to 30 September).
• The average age of a case awaiting hearing, from the point of the regulator receiving the fitness to practise concern, rose from 165 to 173 weeks in the second quarter of 2024-25. This is equivalent to three years and four months.
• The number of cases that had been open for at least three years rose from 294 to 335 during the second quarter of 2024-25.
• Over the same period, the number of cases that had been open for at least a year rose from 1,052 to 1,090.

Progress on completing investigations

The regulator has made some progress in reducing delays at earlier stages of its fitness to practise process.

It concluded 148 investigations in the second quarter of 2024-25, up from 129 in the previous quarter, with the (median) average time taken to conclude these falling from 68 to 60 weeks between the two quarters.

The average age of its investigations caseload fell slightly, from 68 to 67 weeks, between the two quarters. However, this was significantly above its target of 58 weeks.

Reduction in case examiner timeframes

There was a similar trend in relation to the case examiner stage, when regulator staff examine the investigation report to determine whether there is a realistic prospect that concerns could be proved, and if so, whether fitness to practise could be found to be impaired.

Case examiners completed 119 cases in the second quarter of 2024-25, up from 85 in the first quarter, with the average age of concluded cases falling from 113 to 103 weeks.

The average time taken to conclude the case examiner process alone fell from 14 to 13 weeks between the two quarters, against a target of less than 12 weeks.

More delay at the triage stage

However, delays have increased at the triage stage, when the regulator determines if there are reasonable grounds to investigate the concerns and whether the concerns suggest the social worker’s fitness to practise is currently impaired.

The number of cases closed at the triage stage or that progressed to an investigation fell from 350 in the first quarter to 327 in the second quarter of 2024-25.

The average age of the triage caseload rose from 24 to 29 weeks, against a target of 19 weeks, while the number of cases open at that stage increased from 1,030 to 1,070 during this time.

Earlier in the year, Social Work England recruited six people into new roles in the triage team in order to improve timeliness. The regulator said they had now been trained and that it expected improvements in timeliness during the rest of 2024-25.

Cases put on hold pending legal advice

However, it added that some triage cases were on hold because of a need for it to seek legal advice.

In a statement to Community Care, Social Work England said: “Concerns we receive in relation to social workers are often complex, and at the start of our fitness to practise process we are frequently provided with large numbers of documents.

“In order to ensure that we are complying with any legal obligations as to how we use these documents (for example where the documents contain information that might relate to family court proceedings) we take a careful approach to how we progress our cases, which may often include seeking legal advice.

“We continue to look at ways to balance our careful use of such documents alongside the efficiency of our processes, and this includes discussing ways to do this with our sponsor department, the Department for Education.”

Research into ‘seriousness’ in fitness to practise cases

Meanwhile, the regulator has issued a tender for an organisation to carry out research into how “seriousness” relates to fitness to practise proceedings and outcomes.

Under Social Work England’s fitness to practise rules, one of the criteria triage staff may use in determining whether a concern is worth investigating is its “seriousness”, with reference to the regulator’s overarching objective of public protection.

The research is designed to answer the following questions:

• How Social Work England’s fitness to practise outcomes to date have explored and described the concept of seriousness.
• How different health and social care regulators’ case law and guidance define seriousness in their fitness to practise processes, and how this has evolved over time.
• How the Professional Standards Authority, which oversees health and social care professional regulators, approaches seriousness, and how this has evolved over time.
• How seriousness is understood and interpreted within complex aspects of fitness to practise, such as misconduct, dishonesty and public interest.
• How decision makers understand and use guidance and case law in relation to seriousness throughout Social Work England’s fitness to practise proceedings.
• What ‘human factors’, such as the workplace environment, should (or should not) be considered by Social Work England when considering seriousness in fitness to practise proceedings.

Black, male and 40-plus social workers remain disproportionately represented in fitness to practise (FtP) cases, Social Work England data has confirmed.

The regulator has released an update on analysis it conducted last year on how different groups of practitioners were represented in the FtP process, which was based on referrals received from its inception in December 2019 to March 2023.

That found that the three groups were not only overrepresented in concerns referred to the regulator but also in cases that were subsequently investigated and those referred to a hearing, when a panel determines whether the social worker’s fitness to practise is impaired.

The latest analysis extends the dataset by a year, meaning it now runs from December 2019 to March 2024. Unsurprisingly, the overrepresentation of black and male social workers and those aged over 40 remains, at multiple points of the FtP process.

Longstanding concerns about overrepresentation

There are longstanding concerns about overrepresentation in the fitness to practise system.

The then regulator, the General Social Care Council, identified disproportionate numbers of men, black practitioners, those aged 40-49 and disabled social workers in referrals that it received from 2004-11.

In July 2020, seven months after it took over the role, Social Work England reported that black and ethnic minority social workers were overrepresented in fitness to practise referrals it had received thus far.

At the time, it said investigating whether its processes were non-discriminatory was something that it was “absolutely committed to” working on but it needed to develop a system to do that.

Collecting diversity data on social work population

Its next step was encouraging social workers to submit data on their protected characteristics, under the Equality Act 2010, and demographic categories.

By 2023, it had this information for the vast majority of the registered population, which enabled it to carry out the analysis of fitness to practise data published last year.

Commenting on the 2023 data last year, Social Work England said: “We must take considerable care in drawing conclusions, because the apparent differences identified in this analysis do not necessarily indicate that differences in outcomes are caused by a social worker belonging to a group within a particular characteristic.”

In its latest analysis, Social Work England examined whether types of concern, regional differences or practitioners’ employment sector helped explain its findings. It found minimal differences depending on the social worker’s region and that the top three types of concern were the same for black, male and 40-plus social workers.

Children’s social workers appeared to be overrepresented in initial referrals compared with adults’ practitioners, but this did not explain the overrepresentation of black, male and 40-plus staff across the FtP process.

Further work to identify causes of disproportionality

Social Work England said it would now undertake a more detailed analysis of a sample of cases, including male and female and black and white practitioners, “to gain a deeper understanding of what causes overrepresentation, and understand potential actions to address this”.

It would combine this by repeating its broader analysis of fitness to practise and diversity data using “a more advanced method of statistical analysis” that would enable it to “consider multiple factors that may influence how a case progresses” through the FtP process.

The two pieces of work would help it design potential improvements to the FtP process and provide guidance to its decision makers. However, it cautioned that identifying and addressing the root causes of overrepresentation was “a challenging and complex area of work” that would take time.

The regulator’s executive director of professional practice and external engagement, Sarah Blackmore, said: “Equality, diversity and inclusion is integral to and embedded in all we do at Social Work England.

“We have always been committed to pursuing positive change in this area for both the profession and people who use social work services. We will continue our work to ensure that our processes and outcomes are fair, efficient, proportionate, and in the public interest.”

The number of fitness to practise (FtP) cases lasting at least three years has doubled since 2023, Social Work England figures have shown.

While 150 cases had been open for more than three years as of 30 June 2023, this had grown to 294 a year later, showed data published in a report to the regulator’s July 2024 board meeting.

The number of cases open for at least a year grew from 828 to 1,052 during this time. Meanwhile, the average age of FtP cases that had a final outcome in April to June 2024 was 128 weeks – almost two and a half years – against an average of 110 weeks during 2023-24.

Hundreds of social workers ‘in limbo’

The news comes after the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), the Social Workers Union (SWU) and UNISON warned that “hundreds” of practitioners were being left in “limbo”- often unable to work – due to FtP delays, to the detriment of their mental health. 

As at 31 August 2024, 113 social workers were subject to an interim suspension order, meaning they were unable to practise whilst awaiting the conclusion of their FtP case, according to data provided in a parliamentary answer by children’s minister Janet Daby. 

Several others have restrictions placed on their working arrangements through interim conditions of practice orders. However, BASW, SWU and UNISON have reported that some employers are not hiring practitioners subject to an FtP case, even if there are no restrictions on their practice, a phenomenon Social Work England has acknowledged takes place.

In response to the latest data, SWU warned that practitioners and their families were “suffering as a consequence of ineffective processes”.

Social Work England said it acknowledged that “it [was] taking too long to resolve cases” and “recognised the distress this can cause to social workers and others involved”

Budget-driven limits on hearings numbers

The situation is driven primarily by limits on Social Work England’s capacity to hold final hearings, as a result of its level of funding from the Department for Education in 2024-25.

Hearings panels, which include at least a qualified social worker and a lay chair, determine whether a practitioner’s fitness to practise is impaired and, if so, what, if any, sanction should follow.

The latest data showed that social workers referred for a hearing had been waiting an average of 165 weeks (3 years and 2 months) from the point Social Work England received an FtP referral about them, as of 30 June 2024. Twelve months earlier this figure was 131 weeks.

The regulator carried out only 13 final hearings from April to June 2024, compared with 64 in the same quarter a year earlier.

And while 386 cases were awaiting a hearing as of 30 June 2024, the regulator only expects to carry out 35 hearings from April 2024 to March 2025.

Challenges across the FtP process

As well as its limited capacity to hold hearings, Social Work England has faced challenges across the whole fitness to practise process.

The average age of cases at the triage stage was 24 weeks as of 30 June 2024, against a quarterly target of 21 weeks and up from 17 weeks a year earlier.

Social Work England has recruited to six people into new roles in the triage team and said that it expected this increased capacity to have an impact from October 2024 onwards.

Meanwhile, the average age of the investigations caseloads grew from 61 weeks in 68 weeks in the year to 30 June 2024, against a quarterly target of 60 weeks. Social Work England said this was due to a higher proportion of younger cases being concluded from April to June 2024 than usual, and a higher than average proportion of older cases being referred to the investigations team during this quarter.

It said it had undertaken targeted reviews of the 50 oldest cases, concluding 10 of them, from April to June 2024, and would continue to do this to ensure older cases were progressed appropriately.

At the case examiner stage, the average age of the caseload grew from 77 weeks to 100 weeks in the year to 30 June 2024, while the time taken to complete the process doubled from seven to 14 weeks, between April to June 2023 and the same quarter in 2024.

Social Work England said its performance in this area had been affected by long-term staff absence, one-sixth of cases being on hold pending information from the family courts and 31 cases having to be referred back to investigations in April to June 2024, compared with 23 in the equivalent quarter of 2023.

The regulator said the case examiner team was back up to full capacity and that it was looking to increase its size further “to ensure we continue to progress cases as quickly and fairly as possible”.

‘We know cases are taking too long’

Social Work England chief executive Colum Conway said the regulator handled FtP cases in line with its legal framework, which was designed “to ensure that the public remains protected, confidence in social workers is maintained and that social workers continue to meet their professional standards”.

Colum Conway, chief executive, Social Work England

He added: “We have seen improvements in the outcomes for people at the various stages of our fitness to practise process. However, we know that it is taking too long to resolve cases and recognise the distress this can cause to social workers and others involved.

“We continue to look at all options for ensuring that our resources are sufficient to carry out our responsibilities and look to make efficiencies and improvements where we can. Alongside this, we continue to hold as many final hearings as we can within our available resources and have communicated with those affected.”

Social workers ‘suffering the consequences of ineffective processes’

Social Workers Union assistant general secretary Calum Gallacher said SWU acknowledged that Social Work England was attempting to address the backlogs.

“Targeting the progression of oldest cases at the investigations stage and closing cases by way of no impairment or accepted disposal are a welcome practical step taken at present,” he said. “But what of the future? Systems in place are evidently not sustainable in the longer term.”

“Social workers and their families are suffering as consequence of ineffective processes. Little is changing to remedy the protracted delays regulated professionals are subject to,” Gallacher added. “There are damaging consequences for workforce morale and professional identity.”

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Hundreds of social workers in England are being “left in limbo”, often unable to work, because of long and increasing delays in fitness to practise (FTP) cases.

That was the warning from the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), Social Workers Union (SWU) and UNISON in a joint statement yesterday setting out their “significant concerns” about Social Work England’s operation of the FTP system.

The bodies, who each represent tens of thousands of social workers, were responding to an admission from the regulator in February that average FTP case lengths would increase from just over two years, currently, during 2024-25.

This was because Social Work England had to reduce FTP final hearing numbers to manage a projected budget overspend in 2023-24, and also due to the high likelihood that its 2024-25 budget settlement from the Department for Education would be insufficient to increase the number of hearings.

BASW, SWU and UNISON said they worked collaboratively with Social Work England and had raised the issue of FTP delays in their regular stakeholder meetings with the regulator in order to resolve the issue.

‘Hundreds of social workers left in limbo’

However, they added: “The time has now come for swift action, as hundreds of social workers are currently left in limbo.”

This exerted an “intolerable and unfair” toll on these practitioners’ mental health, which led some to stop working because of “unmanageable” distress.

Others were unable to work because employers did not consider them for roles when they learned they were subject to an FTP investigation. This was even the case when practitioners were not subject to interim orders placing restrictions on their practice or suspending them altogether, said BASW, SWU and UNISON.

They called on Social Work England to divert resources to FTP, including by simplifying the “laborious and obstructive” approach to registration renewal and making this biennial, rather than yearly.

They also warned Social Work England against raising the fee practitioners pay to register, which has been fixed at £90 a year since the regulator’s inception in December 2019, but which the regulator has said it would review between 2023 and 2026.

Regulator criticised for ‘adversarial approach’

However, while BASW, SWU and UNISON acknowledged that Social Work England had received more cases than expected since 2019, they also claimed delays were driven, in part, by the regulator investigating too many cases and taking an “adversarial” approach.

There were “many examples” of cases that progressed beyond the triage stage when there was “no reasonable reason for them to do so”, said the bodies. At triage, Social Work England determines whether there are reasonable grounds to investigate the social worker’s fitness to practise.

Then, at the investigations stage, the regulator “in almost all cases” only sought evidence supporting the allegation against the registrant, they said. Information that could clear the social worker was “not considered or overlooked” even when drawn to the attention of investigators, the bodies added.

What BASW, SWU and UNISON want to see

“This has the effect of cases progressing that do not need to, taking up significant resources, the very problem that leads to delay at all stages,” said BASW, SWU and UNISON.

They called on the regulator to ensure investigations were “more collaborative and thorough” and update training and guidance for case examiners. These FTP staff determine, following investigation, whether there is a realistic prospect that the concerns about the registrant could be proved and, if so, whether their fitness to practise may be found impaired.

Such revised guidance for case examiners should ensure examiners “make assessments from a neutral, less combative position, taking into account contextual factors”.

BASW, SWU and UNISON also called on the regulator to “develop alternative outcomes” for cases where the person has been awaiting a final hearing for multiple years and “adopt a more reasonable approach to voluntary removal”.

Call for urgent discussions

This is the process by which the regulator decides whether to accept a person subject to FTP proceedings’ request to be removed from the register, which is based on whether there is a public interest in the fitness to practise case continuing.

The three organisations sent the statement to Social Work England on 25 April, along with a letter in which they asked for “urgent and progressive discussions…to address the issues we have raised”.

Social Work England responded to them on 3 May, and has now published this response on its website (see box below). 

In this, it said it looked forward to meeting with BASW, SWU and UNISON to further discuss the issues.

Social Work England recently revealed that fitness to practice (FTP) case lengths will rise from their current average of just over two years due to budget pressures.

The regulator said its likely government funding settlement for 2024-25 meant it would be unable to increase the number of final FTP hearings it held, increasing waiting times for practitioners.

However, according to respondents to a recent Community Care poll that amassed almost 700 votes, the current case length – from referral to a decision on the practitioner’s fitness to practise – is already much too long.

When considering what would be a reasonable timeframe to thoroughly and fairly investigate an FTP case, almost three-quarters of social workers (73%) said up to six months, with a further 20% selecting six to 12 months

Four per cent said 12-18 months, 1% said 18 months to two years and just 2% chose two or more years, in line with Social Work England’s current average.

‘Why can’t we look after each other?’

In the comments section of the related article, many social workers criticised the regulator’s failure to minimise the timescales, with some considering taking their complaints to Social Work England’s watchdog, the Professional Standards Authority.

“Social Work England routinely taking over two years to conclude investigations is not good enough,” said Tom J, who is trying to create a “six months is plenty” campaign with his trade union.

“Not good for the social worker who has this hanging over them [and] makes a mockery of the person complaining. How seriously are you taking my complaint if it takes you over two years to bring it to a conclusion?”

Another called the delay unacceptable, adding: “This is a profession that makes all the right noise regarding doing the right thing in a timely manner for everyone else. Why can’t we look after each other?”

“Can you imagine the outcry if it took social workers two to eight years to complete an assessment?” asked Callum.

‘Referrals should be accompanied by evidence’

Some suggested overhauling the current processes to help reduce the timescales.

Alastair Gibbons referenced a colleague who had been waiting for an FTP hearing for five and a half years following the referral and eight years post the complaint event. He called the FTP processes too “legalistic and adversarial”.

“This is grossly unfair and unjust and has caused enormous distress. [Processes] should be based on restorative and learning approaches, rather than blame. There should be a time limit (say two years) after which complaints are dropped if Social Work England has been unable to reach a conclusion.”

One practitioner whose local authority took six months to provide evidence and another six months to conclude that there was no case to answer against them, suggested that the regulator makes it a rule that every referral should be accompanied by evidence.

“It feels that Social Work England just goes on fishing expeditions. If they are not provided with any evidence then the case should be closed.”

Regulator ‘blighted by reduced funding’

However, one practitioner, Malteser, said they felt sorry not only for social workers but also the regulator, who they said had been “blighted by lockdowns and reduced funding”.

“Alternative disposals need to be strongly considered and a realistic view be taken of the concerns already shunted through by case examiners,” they added.

“It isn’t fair to all concerned – alleged victims and alleged unfit social workers. The mental torture both sides go through as well as [the lack of] income if the social worker [is suspended] cannot be underestimated.”

Regulator exploring ways to resolve cases without hearings

The regulator has said that it will be considering “operational efficiences” and new ways to resolve cases without progressing them to a hearing where appropriate, to help manage case delays.

In the meantime, Social Work England has pledged to prioritise hearings based on risks that have been identified and to continue to “explore funding options” to increase capacity and reduce timescales for cases.

What has your experience with a FTP process been like?

Social Work England’s performance improved last year, the regulator’s watchdog has found.

It met 17 of 18 standards it was assessed against by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) in 2023, up from 16 in each of the previous two years.

For the first time, the regulator met standard 17, under which it is expected to identify and prioritise all fitness to practise concerns which suggest a serious risk to the safety of people using services, and to apply for an interim order where appropriate.

It continued to meet all other standards, including on areas such as monitoring social work education courses and effectively managing the register, with the exception of standard 15, concerning the fairness and efficiency of the fitness to practise process. It missed this for the second year because of the long delays to cases.

Progress on risk assessment

In its previous report, which covered December 2021 to December 2022, the PSA found that Social Work England did not meet standard 17 because the time it took to make an interim order from the point of referral had increased on the previous review period.

The timeliness of the process improved in the first half of 2023, falling from an average of 32.4 weeks in the last quarter of 2022 to 21.5 and 22.1 weeks, respectively, in the first two quarters of last year. Case timeframes then increased substantially, to 45.1 and 44.6 weeks, respectively, in the last two quarters of 2023.

‘Reasonable explanations’ for case delays

However, a PSA audit identified no cases where it considered there had been a delay in Social Work England applying for an interim order. The watchdog also said the regulator had provided it with “reasonable explanations” for why case delays in the second half of 2023 were due to factors beyond its control.

The most significant of these was other investigations, for example, by employers, taking longer than expected to conclude, with subsequent challenges for Social Work England in obtaining evidence. In other cases, where the concern was about an agency worker, there was no prior investigation for Social Work England to rely upon, meaning it had to investigate the concern from scratch.

Another issue cited by the regulator was that it sometimes had to seek primary evidence about the context around a social worker’s decision making, in cases where they had acted properly but a person did not like the decision they had made.

The PSA also pointed out that Social Work England had met its own target on interim orders, to approve them within 20 working days after identifying that such an order may be necessary.

As a result, it concluded that the regulator had met standard 17, though added that it needed to ensure all aspects of the process within its control worked as effectively as possible, given the high risk to public protection in these cases.

No improvement on timeliness of fitness to practise

However, it found that the regulator had not met the standard on dealing with fitness to practise cases fairly, proportionately and as quickly as is consistent with a fair process, because it had not improved timeliness.

The PSA found that Social Work England was lagging well behind its targets on the median age of cases at the triage stage – where it decides whether there are reasonable grounds to investigate a social worker’s fitness to practise – and at the investigation stage.

As of the end of December 2023, the median age of the triage caseload was 23 weeks – against a March 2024 target of 14 weeks – and that of the investigation caseload was 66 weeks, against a March 2024 target of 54 weeks.

“It appears unlikely that Social Work England will meet either of these KPIs,” said the PSA, which added that Social Work England had explained this with reference to high levels of vacancies and absences in its triage and investigations teams.

The PSA also pointed out that the overall time from receiving a fitness to practise referral to a case conclusion had increased from 117.3 weeks in the last quarter of 2022 to 133 weeks in the last quarter of 2023.

As reported in Community Care last month, overall case lengths are set to rise further over the coming year because Social Work England’s 2024-25 budget settlement from the Department for Education (DfE) will likely prevent it from increasing the number of final hearings it holds to determine cases.

The PSA said that Social Work England had taken actions to improve timeliness – such as increasing capacity in its triage and investigations teams and reviewing triage processes – but it was too early to detect any impact from these.

Regulator ‘will do everything it can’ to tackle case delays

In response to the PSA’s report, Social Work England chief executive Colum Conway said the regulator was pleased that it had improved its performance year on year.

“The review recognised that we continued to face challenges in our fitness to practise process and this was the reason that we did not achieve one of the standards. It highlighted that we have taken several positive actions to streamline and improve this, he added.

“Whilst these actions have made improvements to this key element of our regulation, we agree that we can only improve timescales by increasing our capacity to hold hearings. We will do everything we can to do this within our resources.”

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Fitness to practise (FTP) delays are set to rise further due to pressures on Social Work England’s budget, the regulator has confirmed.

Case lengths – from referral to a decision on the practitioner’s fitness to practise – will increase over the next 12 months from a current average of just over two years, Social Work England said in a report to its board meeting last month.

The situation is driven by the regulator’s constrained capacity to hold hearings determining the outcome of an FTP case.

Social Work England has reduced hearing numbers in recent months to tackle a projected overspend on its 2023-24 budget. Also, it is expecting its Department for Education (DfE) funding for 2024-25 to be insufficient to prevent increases in how long social workers spend waiting for their case to be heard.

The news prompted warnings from the Social Workers Union about the mental toll on practitioners of being subject to lengthy FTP processes.

Budget difficulties reducing hearing numbers

Social Work England said its current financial difficulties were mainly triggered by ministers requiring all government departments and agencies to pay non-senior civil servants a cost of living payment of £1,500 last summer.

The “unbudgeted” item cost the regulator £355,000, leaving it facing a projected overspend of £488,000 for 2023-24, net of income from social worker fees, as of the end of September last year.

To counter this, it developed a “financial mitigation” plan that included a recruitment freeze and reducing hearing numbers, which resulted in the projected overspend dropping to £222,000 as of the end of 2023.

However, this meant that the number of hearings per quarter fell from 64 in April to June 2023, to 35 in July to September and just 17 in October to December.

And though the number of cases awaiting a final hearing had fallen from a high of 412 last February to 354 in September 2023, it rose slightly in the last quarter of the year, to 361 in December.

DfE funding to tackle case backlog

The DfE has provided the regulator with additional resource beyond its core funding in each of the last three years, chiefly to tackle the backlog of ‘legacy’ FTP cases Social Work England inherited from the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

These payments were worth £1.9m in 2021-22, £5.5m in 2022-23 – £1.2m of which was carried over to 2023-24 – and an additional £0.8m in 2023-24. Social Work England completed a project to deal with the legacy cases in June 2023.

Likely 2024-25 budget means increase in waiting times

For its 2024-25 budget, Social Work England presented the DfE with three scenarios, at the department’s request:

1. Returning to its core funding level, with “minimal” adjustment for known price rises, meaning a reduction in its 2023-24 budget.
2. Similar funding levels to 2023-24, enabling it to meet known pay and price increases and slightly increase its work influencing national policy.
3. An increase on the 2023-24 budget.

While the number of FTP cases awaiting a hearing “would begin stabilising” during 2024-25 under scenario 3, the DfE has told Social Work England a budget rise is unlikely, the regulator said.

As a result, it was preparing for one of the first two scenarios; however, in either case, “waiting times at the hearings stage would continue to increase”, it added.

‘Limited scope to tackle hearings challenge’

In response to the situation, a Social Work England spokesperson said: “Whilst we continue to focus on being as efficient as possible, as a small organisation there is very limited scope within our current budget to re-focus spending from other essential activities to address the challenge in hearings.

“We will continue to:

• Explore future funding options that may allow us to increase capacity to progress more cases to hearings.
• Prioritise case investigation, examination, and scheduling for hearings based on risks that have been identified through our consideration of the concerns raised.
• Explore additional operational efficiencies within our fitness to practise process and consider further ways to resolve cases without a requirement to hold a final hearing, where this would be appropriate. These efficiencies may reduce the number of cases requiring a final hearing, but will not allow for more final hearings to be held.”

Distress is ‘unmanageable’ for social workers waiting on cases

The Social Workers Union said some of its members had had hearing dates adjourned up to three times and been told by the regulator to expect their case to be rescheduled to 2025.

Assistant general secretary Callum Gallacher said “elongated” waits for cases to reach a hearing were taking their toll on social workers.

“Some electively stop working because the distress is unmanageable, impact on immediate mental health, personal safety and wellbeing, and adversities also faced by their families who depend on them for emotional and financial support unmanageable. Some become trapped unable to move from problematic workplaces, or silencing cultures.”

Pressures across fitness to practise system

Social Work England’s performance report also revealed that the regulator was facing pressures across the whole of the FTP system.

The regulator received more FTP concerns from April to December 2023 (1,405) than during the same periods in 2022 (1,369) and 2021 (1,299).

The average age of cases at the triage stage rose from 18 to 23 weeks, against a target of 14 weeks, between July to September and October to December 2023.

The triage team determines whether there are reasonable grounds to investigate the social worker’s fitness to practise, and the delays reflect significant vacancy and absence levels during the second half of 2023.

This has had a knock-on impact on the age of cases being investigated, which rose from 62 to 66 weeks – equivalent to one year and three months – between July to September and October to December 2023.

Drive to rebalance fitness to practise system

The situation comes with Social Work England’s 2023-26 strategy having set an ambition to reduce FTP caseloads and delays by “getting ahead of the curve” to prevent concerns about practitioners from arising.

The strategy says that, in particular, the regulator would seek to achieve this by:

• improving and strengthening the transition from education to employment;
• supporting and guiding early career development;
• making continuing professional development (CPD) routine, impactful and core to improving professional practice;
• enhancing the development and accountability required of specialist roles, such as approved mental health professionals, best interests assessors and practice educators.

Findings that black, male and 40-plus social workers are overrepresented in fitness to practise processes have raised questions about the impact of discrimination in the sector.

The three groups were not only overrepresented in concerns referred to Social Work England but also in cases that reached the hearings stage.

The findings were based on an analysis of diversity data supplied to the regulator by 94% of registered practitioners from 2021-23, along with fitness to practice referrals received since Social Work England started work in December 2019.

In those, black social workers made up one in three cases referred to a hearing, despite comprising one in six registered practitioners.

Still, Social Work England urged caution when looking at the findings, as the disparities identified did not “necessarily indicate that differences in outcomes are caused by a social worker belonging to a group within a particular characteristic”.

However, more than two-thirds (72%) of practitioners replying to a recent Community Care poll, which amassed 1,049 votes, said discrimination often affected fitness to practise processes.

Only 9% said discrimination played no role, while 12% said it did occasionally.

‘A complex issue’ – Social Work England

During this year’s Community Care Live, Social Work England’s chief executive, Colum Conway, said the regulator would be looking into why such differences were arising and how they could be addressed.

“We haven’t been able to get underneath the cause as yet, but it’s a very complex spectre,” he said. “We’ll certainly do what we can to address why it is that these groups are more likely to end up in a hearing than other groups. Does it go back to the nature of the referral or is it something in our processes that we need to seriously address as well?

“This will be part of the information we feed back into the system, not just here but in education and training and other areas. It’s everybody’s responsibility.”

Conway announced that the next phase of this work would be to delve deeper into the findings, such as breaking them down by geographic areas and specific ethnic groups.

However, he cautioned that that would only be possible if practitioners were as detailed as possible when completing their application to renew their registration this autumn.

“The more complete you can make that process, [the better],” Conway added. “It is individually important for your registration but, for the picture that we are trying to build for those over 100,000 social workers, it is crucial.”

‘I’m wondering whether I’m joining the right profession’

In comments under our article on the issue, the disparity in referral and hearing rates sparked fear and uncertainty, particularly among newly qualified and student social workers who fell within the highlighted demographic groups.

“Reading this is making me worried,” said Andy. “I am 40-plus and black. I am now wondering if I am joining the right profession after reading this report and subsequent reports.”

His worry was echoed by Mike, who also ticked all the boxes in the report.

“I am in the same position as you, Andy. Forty-plus, black, and new to the profession. I’m miles concerned [about] my choice to get into social work. Guess I will have to be guarded as much as possible and hope for the best.”

‘I don’t want to be discriminated against’

Jackie, who has just applied for a training programme to become a social worker, was left contemplating whether she had made the right choice in doing so.

“I innocently want to have a career that affects the lives of families and children [for the better]. I don’t want to be abused or discriminated at or have my career journey be traumatic and full of regrets.”

And while the findings led some students and early career social workers to question their career choice, for some experienced practitioners they were a reason to say goodbye to the profession.

Joseph, who had been through a fitness to practise investigation, said he was looking forward to deregistering this year.

“After my experiences, this data underscores that, with my protected characteristic profile, the risks faced in remaining in the profession far outweigh the benefits. The fitness to practise process is brutal and protracted. I’m fortunate to have regained sanity and better health subsequently.”

“I’m out of here after 25 years too,” said Abdul, who had been referred by someone he didn’t know. “Not worth it. I value my reputation, life and personal time too much.”

‘Prioritise your wellbeing’

One reader, who ticked all the demographics highlighted by Social Work England, had resigned from his employment due to his case being in process for over two years.

“If you are still working during [your fitness to practise investigation], it’s likely psychologically and emotionally very difficult to concentrate on your job – effectively and safely,” he said.

He advised fellow practitioners in similar situations to “stay engaged” and help improve the process whenever possible, but also to prioritise their mental health.

“My immediate advice to anyone directly affected by this process (despite the focused demographics) is to prioritise your wellbeing,” he said.

“Keep calm, assume some self-responsibility and find a friend to confide in. In a high blame culture (public, health and social work, education profession), the complaint issues may not always be about your actions alone.”