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.

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

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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 workers in Wales will no longer have to show the regulator that they have completed 90 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) over three years in order to renew their registration.

Social Care Wales said the change, which takes effect today (1 April 2025), was designed to simplify the CPD process and underscore that “what’s most important is the quality and impact of [registrants’] learning”.

While practitioners will need to confirm that they have completed CPD and that their learning is up to date and in line with Social Care Wales’s code of professional practice for social care, they will no longer have to log their learning with the regulator or evidence that they have done a required amount.

Reforming system dating back to 2001

Previously, registered social workers and social care managers in Wales needed to show that they had done 90 hours of CPD over the previous three years at the point of renewal, and log what learning they had carried out, on the regulator’s SCWonline system. Registered social care workers needed to show evidence of having carried out 45 hours.

This system has, broadly speaking, been in place since the register opened in 2001, said Social Care Wales.

The regulator undertook a consultation on reforms in 2019 that found strong support for an outcomes-based approach to CPD, but implementation was delayed because of the Covid pandemic.

Social Care Wales learning requirements

Social Care Wales’s code of practice for social care, which all registrants must follow, states that they must must undertaking relevant learning and development to maintain and improve their knowledge and skills to ensure they are fit to practise, and contributing to the learning and development of others” (standard 6.9).

Practice guidance for social workers that builds on the code states that they must:

• routinely review and update knowledge of legal, practice, policy, regulatory and procedural frameworks;
• keep up-to-date with relevant literature and research;
• listen and learn from others, including people using the service, relatives, carers and other professionals;
• seek help with critical gaps in knowledge and skills;
• use learning to support improved outcomes for people.

It also says they should use a variety of methods to keep up to date, such as reading, attending courses, carrying out post-qualifying training, learning from visits and placements, contributing to professional forums and accessing or contributing to research.

Though registrants will no longer have to log their CPD, Social Care Wales said registrants “must keep records” of their learning and discuss it with their manager, and that it “may check a sample of records”.

Sixty per cent of social workers were yet to renew their registration two weeks out from the deadline, Social Work England has reported.

As of 14 November 2024, 41,945 (40.4%) of the almost 104,000 practitioners who must complete the three-part process – paying the fee, completing the application form and meeting continuing professional development (CPD) requirements – had done so.

This means completion rates have slipped behind 2023 levels, when 45.3% of relevant social workers had completed the process as of 16 November. Progress was broadly in line with last year at the end of October.

Social Work England urges practitioners to renew

The trend was noted by Social Work England, which urged social workers still to renew to do so immediately.

“We strongly encourage all social workers with incomplete actions to log in now to complete the registration renewal application process and to avoid a last minute rush,” said executive director of regulation Philip Hallam.

Philip Hallam, Social Work England’s executive director of regulation

Hallam reiterated the consequences of not renewing by the deadline of 30 November 2024.

“If they do not apply to renew, their registration will lapse, he said. “Social workers will be required to apply to restore their registration if they want to continue to practise.

“To restore they will need to provide additional information and pay an additional £135. It can take over 20 working days for us to review an application to restore, during which time social workers are not be permitted to practise or use the protected title of social worker.”

CPD requirements

Social Work England’s latest update showed that just over half of relevant registrants (53,331) had completed the application form, of whom 11,360 had not met the CPD requirements.

These involve submitting two different pieces, one of which must have been reflected upon with a peer.

The just over 2,000 practitioners who have registered since the start of the renewal period – 1 September 2024 – only need to pay the registration fee, which most social workers submit in two equal instalments of £45 on 1 October and 1 April.

As of 14 November 2024, 69% of these social workers had paid the fee, compared with 78% as of 16 November 2023.

Social workers want to either scrap or reduce the continuing professional development (CPD) requirements for renewing registration in England, according to a recent poll.

This follows Social Work England’s announcement it will be reviewing its approach to registration renewal to ensure “the right balance between public protection, public confidence in the profession, and efficiency”.

As part of that, it will be reviewing relevance and feasibility of its current requirement for social workers to submit two pieces of CPD, one of which must have been reflected upon with a peer, to renew their registration each year.

Scaling down or scrapping CPD requirements

In a Community Care poll with over a thousand responses, the vast majority of respondents wanted CPD requirements to be reduced or removed.

The biggest group (45%) suggested making CPD a two- or three-year requirement, with 37% calling for it to be scrapped altogether and 10% backing reducing the number of annual submissions to one (10%).

Only 7% supported the status quo, with just 1% calling for an increase in the number of required submissions.

‘One CPD is enough’

Some social workers commenting on the related article also argued against the two pieces of CPD requirement.

“I don’t understand why social workers are required to complete two pieces of written documentation,” said Golam.

“It’s time-consuming. It proves we can write a mini essay. Medical professionals ask colleagues to answer questions about their performance. Isn’t that a more accurate gauge of whether we are competent and uphold standards?”

Golam was echoed by another practitioner, who said the requirement didn’t account for how busy social workers were.

“NHS staff do CPD once in three years,” they added.

Mark advocated for the submission form to include a text option with prompts, calling the current format, “with all the boxes”, demotivating.

Have your say

To inform its review, Social Work England has launched a short survey for social workers and individuals interested in the profession.

Part of the questionnaire asks respondents how far they see CPD as vital to maintaining professional standards in social work.

How would you improve the CPD process for renewing registration?

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

For our 50th anniversary, 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 either:

• Filling in our nominations form with a letter or a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.
• Or sending a voice note of up to 90 seconds to +447887865218, including your and the nominee’s names and roles.

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

Principal social workers have urged practitioners to “let go of their frustrations” regarding Social Work England’s decision not to check continuing professional development (CPD) submissions made for this year’s registration renewal round.

Last month, the regulator announced it would not carry out its usual practice of checking the CPD of 2.5% of registered social workers following the 2024 renewal process, which concludes on 30 November. This is because it is carrying out a wider review of its approach to CPD, for which it currently requires practitioners to submit two pieces of learning as part of the annual renewal process, one of which must have been reflected upon with a peer.

In a statement issued today, the chairs of the Adult Principal Social Worker Network said that social workers had shared “frustrations” about the decision with some PSWs, though did not specify what these were.

However, while they acknowledged the frustrations, the network chairs urged practitioners to reflect on the importance of carrying out CPD for their professional development.

CPD ‘may not be seen but will make a difference’

“Like many acts undertaken in social work, this year it may not be seen, but it will make a difference, and its impact felt,” the chairs said. “We encourage all social workers to let go of any frustrations and…be accountable and maintain our CPD by sharing our learning with peers.”

They referenced standards 3 and 4 of Social Work England’s professional standards, which all practitioners must uphold. These require social workers to be accountable for the quality of their practice and the decisions that they take (standard 3) and to maintain their continuing professional development (standard 4).

The network chairs added: “Whilst things can feel really tough, it offers a perfect opportunity to reconnect with why we do what we do as social workers.  If you submit both pieces as a peer reflection you will have worked with others to grow together.  We also ask employers to give space for social workers to complete this requirement.”

‘A good time to review CPD approach’

In its statement last month, Social Work England said that, having taken responsibility for regulation five years ago, now was a “good time” to review its CPD requirements.

It said the review would look at how the process provided assurance to the public about the safety and effectiveness of social workers’ practice and how it supported practitioners to evidence that they were meeting the regulator’s professional standards.

To inform the process, it has launched a short survey of social workers and others with an interest in the profession.

This asks how far respondents believe annual registration ensures the register remains up to date and accurate and gives the public and employers confidence in the profession, and how far they see CPD as vital to maintaining professional standards in social work.

Social Work England will not review a sample of practitioners’ continuing professional development (CPD) records following the current registration renewal process, the regulator has revealed.

It has launched a review of its approach to CPD, during which it has suspended its usual practice of having independent assessors check the anonymised submissions of 2.5% of registered practitioners – about 2,500 social workers – selected at random.

The news comes a month after Social Work England launched the annual three-month registration renewal period, which closes on 30 November 2024.

Who will have CPD checked?

The only people whose records will be checked following the 2024 renewal period are practitioners who were selected for review following the 2023 round and whose CPD was then found not to meet requirements.

This was the case for 57 practitioners – 2.3% of the practitioners whose records were reviewed – meaning they were given advice on improving their CPD.

The regulator said their records would be checked to “ensure that social workers have taken the advice provided on board and applied it to their CPD”.

Despite dropping its usual review of practitioners’ CPD records, the regulator stressed that its requirements for registrants – submitting two pieces of CPD, one of which should have been reflected upon with a peer – remained.

It said it would continue to monitor whether these were being met. This will include ensuring that social workers do not submit two identical CPD records.

The CPD review process

The regulator has reviewed the records of 2.5% of social workers since its first registration renewal period in 2020, to check compliance with its professional standard on CPD, as required by the Social Work Regulations 2018.

The reviews have been carried out by independent assessors, who are a mixture of social workers and lay people.

Since 2022, when Social Work England introduced the requirements for practitioners to submit two pieces of CPD, up from one, and to have reflected on one with a peer, assessors have checked 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.

‘A good time to review CPD approach’

The wider review of CPD requirements fulfils a commitment in Social Work England’s 2024-25 business plan to review its approach to registration renewal to ensure it “offers the right balance between public protection, public confidence in the profession, and efficiency”.

It also pledged to learn more about how social workers used CPD.

In a statement, Social Work England said that, having taken responsibility for regulation five years ago, now was a “good time” to review its CPD requirements.

It said the review would look at how the process provided assurance to the public about the safety and effectiveness of social workers’ practice and how it supported practitioners to evidence that they were meeting the regulator’s professional standards.

To inform the process, it has launched a short survey of social workers and others with an interest in the profession.

This asks how far respondents believe annual registration ensures the register remains up to date and accurate and gives the public and employers confidence in the profession, and how far they see CPD as vital to maintaining professional standards in social work.

‘We will continue to monitor CPD requirements’

Social Work England’s executive director – regulation Philip Hallam said: “While we carry out this work, individual CPD records will not be selected for review by independent assessors.

“As in previous years, all social workers wishing to renew their registration must submit two pieces of CPD on their online account by 30 November as normal.

“We will continue to monitor that social workers are meeting the requirements – for example, confirming that the CPD records social workers provide are unique.”

Two abiding facts about social work are that practitioners are time poor and that continuing professional development (CPD) is critically important for good practice.

Community Care Inform wants to find out how you manage the evident tension between these truths, through a survey designed to paint a comprehensive picture of how social workers – and other social care practitioners – learn today.

The survey asks how much time you feel you need for learning and research each week to do your job to the best of your ability and – how much you actually have.

Do you have enough time to learn?

We want to find out if you lack time for sufficient learning and if so, why. Is it high caseloads, vacancies on your team, insufficient learning resources or a lack of support to carry out CPD from your manager?

We also want to find out what impact this learning deficit is having on you and your career.

We also want to hear about how your organisation supports you in your learning and how this could be improved, as well as how you like to consume learning, for example, through face-to-face courses, webinars, podcasts or written guidance.

How we plan to use research findings

Community Care Inform plans to use the research to highlight practitioners’ experiences of, and opportunities for, learning and how this can be improved to enhance practice.

We will do this by sharing results from the survey, including on the Community Care website, and working with employers to help them apply the findings in their workplaces.

As an added incentive to take part, you will be given the option to be entered into a draw to receive a £50 gift voucher from One4All. The survey will be open until the end of the summer.

Social workers are doing more with less, seeing increased need and weighed down by administrative work, a survey of just over 7,000 practitioners has found.

Practitioners also feel less valued and supported by their employers and are more likely to quit their roles over the next 12 months than was the case a year ago, while significant minorities have experienced bullying or racism, found the latest Local Government Association ‘health check’, carried out from February to April this year.

The check assesses social workers’ views on their organisations’ performance against The standards for employers of social workers in England, which set voluntary expectations of how organisations support practitioners to work safely and effectively.

This year’s survey, whose respondents were employed by over 160 organisations, mainly councils, found declining satisfaction in relation to seven of the eight standards, with the other remaining steady.

Increasing levels of need amid admin burden

Some of the most concerning findings related to practitioners’ overall experiences of their workplaces.

The average score for whether they had not seen an increase in the severity of need of those referred to them was just 45, indicating that practitioners were managing more complex caseloads.

There were also low scores for whether practitioners were not required to do more with less (51) and whether their role did not involve administrative duties that had no or limited impact on outcomes for the people they supported (44).

Against this backdrop, there was a drop of five points (from 74 to 69) in relation to whether practitioners felt positive and able to cope in their roles most of the time, compared with the last survey, in 2022-23.

Practitioners feel less valued by employers

This was accompanied by a fall in the average score for whether social workers felt that their senior leadership team valued and understood the work that they did (from 68 to 65) and in whether they would recommend their employer to a friend (from 75 to 73).

As well as concerns about work pressures, many social workers were dissatisfied with their pay and conditions, with an average score of 61 in relation to whether they were rewarded fairly for their job, and a fall from 71 to 68 in respect of satisfaction with their employment package.

There was also a decline – from 75 to 72 – in the average score for whether social workers did not intend to leave their employer over the next 12 months.

Experiences of bullying and racism

The survey also asked social workers about their experiences of bullying and racism within the previous 12 months.

A quarter (26%) said they had experienced bullying from people who use social care, relatives or members of the public, while 5% said they had experienced this from a colleague. One in 12 (8%) had experienced racism from people who use social care, relatives or members of the public, while 3% had done from colleagues.

Concerns about employer consultation with social workers

In relation to the employer standards themselves, the biggest year on year decline in average score was for standard 2 on effective workforce planning systems (82 down to 74).

Within this standard, social workers raised particular concerns about how well employers consulted with them. There was an average score of 57 for whether employee consultation informed and influenced change, and of 64 for whether employers made sure employees understood and were supported through change. Both of those were new questions.

There were also year-on-year declines in satisfaction across all the other questions within this standard. For example, the average score fell from 74 to 69 on whether employers understood the barriers and challenges getting in the way of social workers doing their best work and promoted solutions to address these.

Satisfaction lowest in relation to CPD

As in previous health checks, satisfaction was lowest in relation to standard 6, on continuing professional development, for which the average score fell from 74 to 72.

Similarly to the 2022-23 survey, the biggest area of concern for social workers in this standard was whether social workers had the time, resources, opportunities and support to do their CPD. The average score for this measure was 62, down from 65 in 2022-23.

There was also a drop in the extent to which social workers thought their assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE) helped them develop their skills and professional competence (70, down from 76).

The sharpest fall concerned whether social workers took regular action to update their CPD, for which the average score was 91 in 2022-23 but just 78 in 2024.

Social workers ‘should not have to tolerate conditions’

In response to the results, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services said leaders “[recognised] the issues raised in the survey responses and remain committed to creating the conditions where good social work with children and families can flourish”.

“Social workers should not have to tolerate conditions that would not be tolerated in other professions,” said Nicola Curley.

“Bullying, abuse and discrimination is completely unacceptable and directors and local authority chief executives have a responsibility to protect our staff from this.

“It is important for us as employers to listen to this valuable feedback from social workers, to understand their experiences of the workplace and the support they need to be able to do their jobs well and, crucially, to create change where it is needed.”

Curley added: “Social workers are at the heart of systems that protect children from harm and support families to overcome challenges and stay together safely. Their work can be challenging and sometimes high risk. They work under heightened media scrutiny, yet the life changing work they do is rarely recognised. Without enough skilled social workers, who are supported and equipped with the tools to do their jobs well, in safe and appropriate working environments, we as directors of children’s services cannot ensure all children in our local areas thrive.”

Latest survey to raise concerns about social work

The survey is the latest to suggest that social workers are working in an increasingly challenging environment that is taking its toll on their wellbeing, satisfaction at work and readiness to stay in their roles.

A Social Workers Union survey earlier this year found 53% felt their mental health had got worse recently due to their work, with a further one in ten saying it had “collapsed”.

When asked for the reasons, several mentioned caseloads and workloads more generally, including the administrative tasks they had to complete and the pressure to complete work to tight timescales, as well as staffing shortages.

Concerns about workloads and staffing levels were also prominent in responses to the British Association of Social Workers’ (BASW) latest annual survey, carried out from December 2023 to January 2024. Two-thirds of respondents had noticed an increase in the turnover of experienced staff in their organisations in the previous 12 months, said BASW.

DfE plans to increase adherence to employer standards

The latest health check also comes with the Department for Education (DfE) seeking to improve adherence to the employer standards as part of its children’s social care reform strategy, Stable Homes, Built on Love.

The department has appointed a consortium comprising Research in Practice, Essex County Council and King’s College London to produce and test tools and resources to support employers in implementing the standards.

This is allied to work that the partnership is carrying out with the DfE-appointed national workload action group (NWAG) to develop resources to tackle “unnecessary” drivers of excess workloads among social workers.

*As well as 7,068 social workers, the LGA received responses to the survey from about 8,000 social care workers and occupational therapists, but has not published the results from these groups.

A record 100,495 social workers in England have renewed their registration with the regulator this year.

Social Work England said 97.3% of practitioners who needed to renew completed the process during the three-month window, which closed on 30 November.

This is the highest proportion recorded in the four renewal rounds since it took over the regulation of social workers in England in December 2019.

3,600 more social workers on register

As a result, England starts the new registration year with 3,609 more registered social workers than last year, when 96,886 renewed.

The regulator reported that the process ran more smoothly this year, citing the positive impact of more tailored communications with practitioners.

In 2022, about 1,000 social workers appeared to have been deregistered inadvertently having paid their £90 fee and completed their continuing professional development requirements.

This year less than half of that number (410) failed to renew as a result of not completing their application form.

Fall in numbers seeking restoration

There has been an accompanying fall in the number seeking restoration to the register following the renewal period, with 319 having done so, compared with 842 last year.

Restoration costs a further £135, on top of the registration fee, and Social Work England can take up to 20 days to process applications, during which time the practitioner cannot work as a social worker.

Overall, there was a significant year-on-year drop in the number of people removed from the register for failing to renew, from 3,740 to 2,256, which was 2.2% of those eligible to renew.

In addition, 1,365 left the register voluntarily during the registration period, down from 1,744 last year.

Social Work England said that it had not yet renewed, or removed, a further 573 practitioners at the time the data was compiled. It said it would provide a further update in early February.

Improvements in communications

Philip Hallam, Social Work England’s executive director of regulation

Its executive director of regulation, Philip Hallam, said: “I’d like to thank social workers who applied to renew their registration by the deadline, and I’m encouraged to see that the social work register continues to grow, with more social workers joining the profession.”

He added: “This year we’ve taken additional steps to ensure our communications to support social workers were tailored to individual circumstances and outlined the specific actions that needed to be taken.

“As the deadline approached, this meant that individual social workers knew exactly what actions were required for them to complete their registration renewal application.”

Hallam said that the regulator trialled sending text messages to some social workers setting out the steps they needed to take to complete the process, and that feedback had been positive about the changes it had made to communications.

CPD submitted

The regulator received 222,148 CPD submissions – just over the two per registrant required – with 136,059 including a peer reflection, which social workers must supply for one of their submitted pieces.

The data also showed that, as last year, children’s services practitioners made up the majority of the register, with 54,023 registrants, 57.5% of the total who provided employment data.

Adults’ social workers accounted for 34.8% – 32,653 – with 7,249 (7.7%) working in other services; all of the proportions were similar to last year.

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

Our Inform Adults and Inform Children sites hold a wealth of learning on all aspects of social work and in a variety of formats, including webinars, podcasts, practice tools and written guidance.

You can then use our CPD log to record your learning in exactly the format that the regulator requires, export this information into a Word document or print it off and then use this to complete your submission in your Social Work England account.

How your Inform log can help you

It’s easy to log any piece of learning from Inform. Simply click on the ‘Add to my CPD log’ button in the ‘Manage article’ box on any article or learning tool.

Our CPD log matches Social Work England’s requirements providing space for you to store what each CPD activity was, what you learnt, the positive impact it has had or will have on your practice and which parts of the CPD standard you feel were met.

There’s also an optional question to respond to in which you can set out what you have learnt from reflecting on the CPD with a peer.

Once you are ready to submit your CPD to Social Work England, you can easily access your full CPD log, by clicking on ‘My CPD’.

You can then print the item of CPD you need or export it as a Word document, from which you can copy and paste the relevant information into Social Work England’s online form.

While there is plenty of learning you can access on Inform to meet your CPD requirements, you can also use our log to note down any of your other CPD from the year, such as attending a training course or event.

A full version of this guide is available on the Inform Children and Inform Adults sites.

Not sure if you have access to Community Care Inform? Inform is typically purchased through an organisational subscription. We partner with local authorities, children’s trusts, NHS trusts, universities, colleges and charities to support their workforces. Contact your manager, principal social worker or learning and development team to check whether you could already have access to a licence through your organisation. You can also contact our helpdesk for more information. If you are an independent or agency social worker, find out about individual subscriptions here.