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.”

Social Work England will not review a sample of practitioners’ continuing professional development (CPD) records following the three-month registration renewal period for the second year running.

While practitioners will face the same CPD requirements during the 2025 renewal round as previously – submitting two pieces of learning, one of which must have been reflected upon with a peer – the regulator will not check any individual records to verify compliance with its professional standard on CPD.

This is because of an ongoing review of its CPD model, which will lead to a consultation on reforming its approach that will take place in 2026-27.

Checks on sample of social workers’ records

Following each of the renewal rounds from 2020-23, independent assessors appointed by Social Work England sampled 2.5% of practitioners’ CPD submissions.

After the introduction of the current CPD model, in 2022, assessors were tasked with checking whether:

• There was a clear description in at least one piece of CPD of the impact of the activity on the social worker’s practice.
• The social worker had discussed at least one piece of CPD with a peer.

When both requirements were met, the social worker’s CPD was approved. If at least one was not, their record was reviewed, independently, by a second assessor.

If that assessor also did not approve the record, the social worker was flagged to have their CPD reviewed the following year and was sent the first assessor’s feedback.

CPD review process dropped for 2024 renewal process

Social Work England dropped the process of sampling 2.5% of social workers’ records for the 2024 renewal round because it wanted to review its CPD process. Only 57 practitioners whose submissions were flagged up following the 2023 audit had their records checked after the 2024 process.

At the same time, the regulator launched a survey of social workers’ and others’ views of the CPD process. This was part of an evidence-gathering exercise designed to help it understand how practitioners recorded their learning, their feelings on the current requirements and the impact of the system on practice.

It also carried out two workshops with social workers, reviewed a sample of anonymised CPD records, did a literature review of research into the purpose and impact of CPD, and carried out a desk-based review of its and other regulators’ messaging about CPD.

A paper to Social Work England’s March board meeting set out some of the conclusions from this exercise.

Social workers ‘recording CPD purely to meet renewal threshold’

These included that:

• Social workers were completing CPD submissions with “rigour and detail” on a wide variety of topics, with safeguarding being the most common focus.
• Most social workers only recorded the required two pieces each year, “indicating they are recording CPD…purely to meet the CPD threshold for renewal”.
• Entries tended to be submitted during the renewal period suggesting they were not being completed at the time the CPD activity was undertaken. “This calls into question the quality of the reflection and its ability to drive up quality in practice,” Social Work England said.
• Social workers saw CPD as essential to their professional development, but “[advocated] for a longer CPD cycle to ease the burden of recording CPD”.
• However, some felt the requirement to “only” record two pieces of CPD demonstrated that Social Work England did “not value the breadth of CPD a social worker does throughout the year” or saw it as being directly linked to registration renewal.
• Some social workers said they did not always feel supported by their employer to complete CPD and called for a greater role for employers in managing and monitoring CPD.
• Social Work England’s online platform did not appear to be a barrier to recording.

Consultation on reforming CPD

On the back of the findings, Social Work England said it wanted to use the 2025-26 financial year to carry out further evidence gathering where there were currently gaps and develop proposals for CPD reform that would be consulted upon in 2026-27.

It said the consultation was likely to be preceded by engagement with the sector, regulators and its National Advisory Forum, which comprises experts by experience and social workers and acts as a “critical friend” to Social Work England.

A spokesperson added: “Whilst we consider any longer-term changes to our CPD model, individual CPD records will not be selected for review. However, we will continue to conduct system checks and monitor the quality of CPD to ensure compliance with our CPD requirements.”

Following the 2024 renewal round, these checks included ensuring that social workers did not submit two identical CPD records.

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Do you have a colleague, mentor, or social work figure you can’t help but gush about?

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone within social work who has inspired you – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

*Please note that, despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry*

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

Review of registration renewal

In tandem with the first phase of its work on the future of CPD, Social Work England also reviewed its annual registration renewal process.

According to the same board report, this review found that:

• The sector accepted an annual renewal cycle and agreed that it supported public protection, Social Work England’s overarching objective. The regulator concluded that retaining this would “maintain regulatory oversight [and] compliance with CPD, and continue to promote public protection”.
• The timing of the renewals window – 1 September to 30 November – provided social workers with sufficient time to complete the three required actions: paying their fee, completing the renewal form and submitting their CPD.
• Social workers were “confident and familiar with the annual registration renewal process and the actions required to successfully renew their annual registration”.
• Most social workers found the online renewal form “intuitive”, with “a very few encountering user issues with the system”.
• Social workers agreed that the online journey was “accessible and easy to navigate”, and felt that the regulator provided “sufficient
  support, guidance and communication to enable compliance with registration renewal”.

Current renewal system to stay in place

On the back of the findings, Social Work England said the current system would stay in place, though it was developing plans to make “incremental” improvements to operational effectiveness and engagement with the sector.

The regulator confirmed that for the upcoming registration renewal period (1 September to 30 November 2025), social workers  would still be required to:

• submit a registration renewal form;
• pay the registration fee;
• record a minimum of two different pieces of continuing professional development, one of which must include a peer reflection.

Social Work England’s watchdog has praised improvements in the speed of its response to overseas practitioners seeking to register to work in the country.

The comments came in a generally positive report on its performance in 2024 by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), which monitors Social Work England and nine health professional regulators.

For the second year running, Social Work England met 17 of the 18 standards it was assessed against, covering its general processes, approach to registration, oversight of social work education and fitness to practise (FTP) system.

The exception was standard 15, on the fairness and efficiency of its FTP process, which it did not meet for the third year running, due to chronic delays in processing cases*.

Sharp rises in overseas applications and processing times

The number of applications from overseas social workers applying to register in England annually almost trebled from 2020-23, from 659 to 1,866.

This triggered a sharp increase in the time Social Work England took to process cases, from less than 10 days on average for most of 2021, to over 50 days in 2023.

The regulator met the relevant standard (11) in the PSA’s 2023 performance review. However, the watchdog said then that, though the regulator was taking “reasonable steps” to address the issue, it expected to see performance improve.

Watchdog praises faster handling of overseas cases

The number of overseas applications fell by 19% to 1,520 in 2024, and, after peaking at 75 days in March 2024, the average handling time fell to less than 25 days in every month from August to December of last year.

“Whilst it is likely that the decrease in the volume of applications contributed to this, it also seems likely that the action taken by Social Work England has significantly contributed to this improved performance,” said the PSA, in its 2024 report.

This included updating guidance for overseas applicants, making the process more efficient, increasing resources for the relevant team and meeting with councils recruiting overseas to gain insight into their processes, said the watchdog.

Equality, diversity and inclusion standard

The PSA also praised aspects of Social Work England’s approach to equality, diversity and inclusion (standard 3), highlighting, in particular, the role of its National Advisory Forum, which comprises experts by experience and social workers.

The PSA said that the forum “co-produces a significant amount of work with Social Work England” and its role underlined the regulator’s commitment to co-production.

It also positively highlighted the fact that Social Work England had eight different equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) related themes for categorising corporate feedback or complaints. When these were identified, the information was shared with the head of EDI, and any actions or learning monitored by the internal quality and improvement team.

Rachel Meade case

The PSA review was the first to take place since an employment tribunal found Social Work England had committed a “serious abuse of power” in allowing its FTP processes to be “subverted to punish and suppress” social worker Rachel Meade’s protected gender critical beliefs.

After finding the regulator had harassed Meade on account of her beliefs through the FTP process, the tribunal imposed exemplary damages on it, a measure generally designed to  “punish conduct that is oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional”.

It also recommended training in freedom of expression and belief for Social Work England’s fitness to practise staff, which the regulator said it would implement, alongside other measures designed to respond to the tribunal’s findings.

Social Work England’s response to concerns 

Following the case, the PSA said it would monitor how Social Work England responded to the judgment. In its 2024 report, it said Social Work England had “explained what it is doing to address the concerns raised with it”, in relation to the Meade case and the issue of FTP delays.

“Its response appears reasonable and we will continue to monitor its progress,” the PSA added.

As such, it said the regulator had met standard 4, which involves “[addressing] concerns identified about it and [considering] the implications for it of findings of public inquiries and other relevant reports”.

Regulator aiming to meet all standards

In response to the report, Social Work England chief executive Colum Conway said: “We are confident in our performance and have once again met 17 out of 18 of the Standards for Good Regulation.

“However, we know this is not good enough and will never be good enough until we meet all 18 standards.

“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.”

*Community Care will be reporting on the PSA’s verdict on Social Work England’s fitness to practise process separately.

Practitioners have rejected Social Work England’s proposed 33% rise in registration fees, with most saying that the regulator should focus on improving “value for money” instead, in response to a Community Care poll.

The plan, currently subject to a 12-week consultation, would mean fees for joining the register, and for annual renewal, would rise from £90 to £120 from 1 September 2025, before rising by a further 1.85% per year up to 2028-29.

The policy is designed to rebalance the regulator’s funding from taxpayers, who have borne a rising share of its funding since 2020, to social workers, whose registration fees have been frozen since 2015.

‘Improve value for money instead’

However, a Community Care poll with almost 2,000 votes, saw social workers objecting to the regulator’s move.

Most respondents (60%) rejected the proposal outright and said that Social Work England should instead “improve value for money”, while one-third believed the increase could only be justified if practitioners’ salaries were considerably improved.

Only 6% called the rise a “good idea”, in the context of the regulator’s struggles to resource fitness to practise cases.

‘A slap in the face for social workers’

The comments under the related article painted a picture of equally strong opposition, with many readers highlighting the lack of meaningful pay rises for social workers in recent years.

“This is really unfair, considering we haven’t had a pay rise in a long time,” said one practitioner.

“The work continues to get harder and more complex, including increased caseloads [and] less management support. Increasing the registration fee from £90 to £120 per year is just another slap in the face for social workers, who are already struggling to make ends meet.”

Joy called the move ‘unfair’, adding: “As a children’s social worker, my wage is small [and has not increased]. Increasing the fee is a big leap.”

‘It just cannot continue as it is’

Another social worker, Louise, believed the regulator’s aim to save taxpayers money would have been better served by improving working conditions for practitioners.

“The pressures of the job are destroying so many social workers and forcing them to quit or work in survival mode,” she said. “This [puts] pressure on other resources and the very people social workers [support] face the brunt of it all. This costs taxpayers even more!

“I would gladly pay the extra fees if Social Work England started to look at why so many social workers are on their knees. Instead of looking at their fitness/capacity to do the job, do something about what is stopping them and making them so disheartened! It just cannot continue as it is!”

‘Tokenistic’ consultation on proposal

A few readers criticised Social Work England’s consultation as “tokenistic”, with Christine Griffith saying the decision “has clearly already been made”.

She was also critical of the regulator for “excessive” delays to fitness to practise hearings and for its decision not to review a sample of practitioners’ continuing professional development submissions following last year’s registration renewal period.

“Each November, we are pressured to finish our continuing professional development (CPD) requirements, yet this year, they weren’t even reviewed!”

Jo M, who has completed Social Work England’s survey on its proposals, suggested CPD requirements should have been included in the consultation.

“I am really angry at this proposal. I work part-time due to caring responsibilities and would like a similar pay rise as pay awards always fall below the cost of living. I would like to know what I’m paying for and perhaps CPD requirements could have been included in the consultation.”

‘Social workers need to take action’

Others were doubtful whether practitioners would take action to oppose the fee increase.

“There is one thing that social workers can do, but won’t do – get organised across the country and mass refuse to pay the increase,” said Jack. “Employers would get involved as they can’t suddenly recruit hundreds of agency workers.”

He added: “I spent over a year on strike…and suffered enormous financial and psychological stress. We believed in the justness of our actions and, though […] previously good relationships were broken, we kept our jobs and nobody was given a negative reference if they chose to leave.”

Crispy added: “Social work enjoys being oppressed. It’s part of our martyr identity. Real-term pay cuts year on year but take one day for industrial action? Absolutely not, no thanks!”

Petition against rise

On the day of the announcement, some social workers launched an online petition calling for the regulator to rescind its proposal, which has received over 2,400 signatures.

While acknowledging the rising costs of fitness to practise cases, the petition organisers urged the regulator to address the “root causes” of these, such as “excessive caseloads, workplace stress, and inadequate support”, rather than “placing the financial burden on social workers”.

You can respond to Social Work England’s consultation survey until 13 May 2025.

Social work assistants would be regulated in Scotland under plans issued for consultation.

Regulator the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is also consulting on adding adult day centre supervisors, practitioners and support workers, and offender accommodation managers, supervisors and practitioners to its register.

The SSSC currently regulates about 176,500 of the approximately 213,000 people working in the sector in Scotland, including social workers, social work students, children’s and adults’ residential care staff, day care workers in children’s services and adult home care workers.

The proposed new groups would add about 7,400 to this total, including 2,800 social work assistants.

The social work assistant role

The role, which is not regulated anywhere in the UK currently, involves supporting “the co-ordination and management of cases and [supporting] social workers to carry out statutory responsibility within their role”.

The SSSC said that social work assistants may contribute to assessments of needs, risk assessments, care plans and developing and sustaining relationships with individuals, however, this would always be under the direct guidance of a social worker and a supervising manager.

Under the plans to regulate the role, social work assistants would need to hold both an academic and a practice qualification.

Proposed qualification requirements

The academic qualification would either be the higher national certificate in social services or the award of at least 96 credits under level 7 of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF).

The proposed practice qualification would be the Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) social services (children and young people) or the SVQ social services and healthcare course, at SCQF level 7.

Because they would need to gain two qualifications, they would be given five years to complete these, from the point of registration.

The SSSC said it had found that many social work assistants already had a relevant qualification, though added that the need to complete both may cause additional pressure for those without any.

Like other SSSC registrants, social work assistants would need to carry out continuous professional learning (CPL) annually.

The regulator has proposed an annual registration fee of £35 for the group, compared with the £80 charge currently in place for social workers, though the latter will rise to £88 in April and then by a further £8 a year until 2029-30, when it will be £120.

Variation in assistants’ pay and conditions 

The SSSC said its scoping work had indicated there was “a large degree of variation in the conditions and pay across social work assistant roles”.

“Setting the qualification requirements at a level that accurately reflects the roles they are required for will assist in demonstrating the complexity of the roles, that the workforce is highly skilled and help to support the professional identity of the role,” it added.

The proposed extension of the register was initiated, in 2023, by the Scottish Government, which then asked the SSSC to scope out the case for regulating roles including social work assistants, adult day centre workers and offender management staff.

The Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW) welcomed the consultation but raised concerns about the impact on social workers.

“Regulation provides assurance to the public and other professionals that services are being delivered by competent and qualified people,” said national director Alison Bavidge.

“However, we need to be careful that decisions taken do not reduce these important job roles simply in to task defined functions.

Concerns about impact on social work role

“All of these roles carry a duty to support people to exercise their human rights, particularly choice and control.  They are intimately connected to the role of the social worker and there is a risk that by defining what these roles do, we define preventative support and early intervention for individuals, families and communities out of the social work role.

“If social workers are left with only the crisis and statutory intervention tasks, this will increase social worker burnout rates and make the current retention and recruitment crisis even worse.”

The consultation runs until 9 April 2025, and you can respond by filling out this survey.

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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.

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Social Work England has proposed increasing its fees by a third this year, in a consultation launched today.

The proposal is designed to rebalance the regulator’s costs away from taxpayers, who have borne a rising share of its funding since its inception in 2019, while fees for social workers have remained fixed.

However, the move has been criticised by UNISON and the Social Workers Union for exacerbating the cost-of-living pressures facing practitioners.

Planned fee increases

The plan would see fees for joining the register, and for annual renewal, rise from £90 to £120 from 1 September 2025.

At the same time, the fee for restoration for former registrants would rise from £135 to £180, while overseas practitioners would face a £670 charge for scrutiny of their application to register in England, up 35% on the current £495.

These would be the first rises in registration fees in England since 2015, when then regulator the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) increased the annual registration fee from £80 to £90.

Social Work England said the increases were designed to take into account the impact of inflation over the past decade, and would be followed by annual rises of 1.85% in fees up to 2028-29, in line with forecasted price rises.

That would take the initial registration and renewal fees to £127, the restoration fee to £190 and the scrutiny fee to £708.

Why is Social Work England planning to increase fees?

Social Work England’s justification for its proposals is to rebalance the income it receives from social workers and from its sponsoring government department, the Department for Education (DfE).

In 2020-21, its first full year as regulator, it received £9.123m in registration fees – amounting to 48% of its income – and £9.777m (52%) from the DfE.

By 2023-24, the balance had shifted to it receiving 57% from the DfE (£13.2m) and 43% from registrants (£10.09m).

Social Work England said the rise in DfE funding had been “much needed”, to deal with higher than expected costs, including from the number and complexity of fitness to practise (FtP) cases inherited from the HCPC, the volume of new FtP concerns it has received and inflation.

Current position ‘not sustainable’

“We propose that a fee increase is required, to both take account of broader inflation, and to ensure that this balance remains proportionate and fair, for social workers, for those that need their support, and for the taxpayer,” the regulator said.

“To not increase our fees would potentially exacerbate this tension between the taxpayer and social worker fees contributions, and is not sustainable over the longer-term given the significant strain on public finances.”

However, the move was heavily criticised by UNISON, the union with the greatest number of social worker members.

Criticism from unions 

National social work officer Gill Archer said Social Work England had “failed to make the case for such a large increase”, at a time when social workers’ pay was “already failing to match the increased price of food and bills”.

“Hitting staff with an increase like this risks pricing some out of a sector that’s already suffering a recruitment and retention crisis,” she warned.

The Social Workers Union (SWU) was also critical, with general secretary John McGowan saying: “I fully understand the need for any organisation to increase fees but this percentage seems to be extremely large in comparisons with other organisations and regulators; particularly at a time when we are all experiencing the pressures of day to day living.

“It would be terrific if social work salaries were increased at a similar percentage rate but this is never going to happen.”

‘Social workers will be expecting improvements’

For the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), chief executive Ruth Allen said practitioners would be expecting to see improvements from any fee rise.

“Many social workers already face financial pressures, and a sharp fee increase adds to this burden,” she said.

Given that Social Work England is a government body, social workers will question how costs should be shared between government and individual registrants.

“If fees rise, social workers will be expecting improvements, particularly in improved fitness to practice processes. We will consult our members openly and push for a fair outcome.”

Comparison with other regulators 

This year’s rise would bring Social Work England’s annual renewal fee into line with those of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (£120) and the HCPC, whose current rate of £116.36 is due to rise to £123.34 this year.

However, it would be significantly above the annual fees for social workers regulated by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), Social Care Wales (both £80) and the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC), whose rate is £65.

Unlike the NMC and HCPC, which both rely upon fees alone for their running costs, but like Social Work England, the SSSC, Social Care Wales, the NISCC and Social Work England are partly government funded.

However, Social Work England said that the other three UK social care bodies regulated other social care roles, alongside social workers, and had different legislative remits to its own.

It also pointed to the fact that the SSSC had recently consulted on increasing its fees, which would see the cost to social workers rise to £88 in 2025-26 and, incrementally, to £120 in 2029-30.

Relief on fees

Some local authorities pay the costs of social workers’ annual registration fees while practitioners for whom the charge is not covered can claim tax relief on their payments.

This applies at the marginal tax rate that practitioners pay (generally 20% or 40%), meaning a basic rate (20%) taxpayer can claim £24 back on the £120 fee they will likely face in 2025-26.

The tax relief can be backdated for four years.

Respond to the consultation

The 12-week consultation on Social Work England’s proposals runs until 13 May 2025.

The regulator is asking for responses to the following questions:

1. To what extent do you agree that the proposed increases to fees in 2025 to 2026 are reasonable in balancing implications for taxpayers and for social workers?
2. To what extent do you agree that the proposed incremental increases to fees from 2026 to 2029 are reasonable in giving clarity about future fees?
3. Do you think that the proposed changes to the fees could have a positive or negative impact on people with any of the following protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity.

You can respond by answering this survey or emailing consultation.responses@socialworkengland.org.uk using the subject line, ‘fees consultation’.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Just one-third of social workers (34%) would recommend the profession as a career, Social Work England has found.

A greater proportion – 42% – would not recommend social work, with the remainder being neutral on the issue, according to the regulator’s first annual survey of the profession.

The online survey, carried out in spring 2024, received 2,120 responses, equivalent to 2% of the registered population in England.

Social Work England quizzed practitioners on their confidence in the regulator, their views on its professional standards, how society valued the profession and whether they would recommend it as a career.

Analysis of free text responses identified that poor pay, overwork and a lack of resources for public services were among key themes behind the relatively low proportion of respondents recommending social work as a career.

‘An amazing job but the workload is too much’

One practitioner said: “Social care is not well resourced, and the work is stressful. It is an amazing job, but the workload is too much. If there were more social workers to meet the demands, it would be a fantastic job. It is not possible to do the work in contracted hours and I don’t get paid for overtime. It’s always difficult to take the time back…”

The regulator also found that those who were less experienced provided more positive comments about social work than more experienced colleagues, while the same was true of those working in adults’ services when compared to children’s services counterparts.

Social Work England also identified that those who felt that society valued social workers were also likely to recommend social work as a career. However, 75% of respondents disagreed that social workers were valued by society, with just 9% agreeing.

This is despite previous research for the regulator finding that 74% of people believed social workers wanted the best for people and 62% felt social workers made a big difference in people’s lives.

‘Social work definitely has an image problem’

This question attracted the most free text responses – 1,462 – the overwhelming majority (88%) of which were negative about society’s valuation of social work, with the biggest perceived contributor being media portrayals of the profession.

“I think that people grossly misunderstand what social workers do,” said one respondent. “Social work definitely has an image problem, which makes our already difficult job much harder. I do blame media representations for this. I have never seen a remotely accurate portrayal of social workers in the media.”

Other respondents, however, said that they did feel valued when working directly with people in a supportive and positive way, but that social workers were less appreciated when they were engaged in safeguarding work.

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

We’re expanding our My Brilliant Colleague series to include anyone who has inspired you in your career – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a letter or a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

Split views on Social Work England

Respondents were split on Social Work England’s impact, with 40% agreeing that it was an effective regulator, 35% responding neutrally and 25% disagreeing.

Neutral or negative responses referenced issues such as the timeliness of fitness to practise cases, for which there is a significant backlog currently due to the regulator lacking the budget to hold sufficient final hearings.

However, the regulator said some responses linked views about Social Work England to wider issues in the profession, such as the insufficiency of practitioners, or revealed a misunderstanding about its role.

For example, some respondents asked for more information on the services, benefits and support it provided to social workers, contrary to its role as a regulator whose fundamental objective is public protection.

Support for professional standards

Social Work England found broad-based support for its professional standards, to which all registered practitioners must adhere. Eighty six per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the standards were important to them, while 90% said they understood how the standards applied to their work as a social worker.

However, practitioners reported challenges in applying the standards due to working conditions and said they needed more support from employers to put them into effect.

“[The standards] are embedded in everything I do day to day,” said one respondent. “Sadly, this is often at odds with the day to day pressures on practice, policies, procedures.”

In response to the results, Social Work England’s executive director of professional practice and external engagement, Sarah Blackmore, said: “It is clear that sometimes there are differing expectations of our role, together with discrepancies as to how social work is viewed by the public and the profession itself.

“The insight of the survey is invaluable for us to learn and keep moving our work forward, while remaining responsive to the sentiment of the profession we regulate.”

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.”