Consultation on the introduction of readiness for professional practice guidance
Consultation on the introduction of readiness for professional practice guidance
This consultation closed on Thursday 6 August at 5pm. We are no longer accepting responses to this consultation. We are currently analysing the responses to this consultation. We will then publish a consultation response along with the final guidance. Full details of our response and any amendments will be made available on our website
Introduction
As the regulator for the social work profession, we set the standards for social work education and training in England, and the professional standards we expect social workers to meet when they qualify. In October 2024, we published our knowledge, skills and behaviours statements (KSBs) which were developed following extensive consultation with the sector and input from our Education and Training Advisory Forum. We have since refreshed the KSB statements to provide clarity about how we expect the KSBs to be used and what they should achieve. The statements outline the knowledge, skills and behaviours that we expect all social work students to be able to demonstrate prior to graduating from a qualifying social work course.
They were designed to:
improve consistency in outcomes achieved in initial social work education and training
ensure that students are adequately prepared to meet the professional standards, apply to join our register and begin their practice upon graduating
Publication of the KSBs has also allowed us to support the development of new frameworks and guidance to ensure they are aligned to our regulatory requirements. This includes the pending revision to the apprenticeship standard, the development of the Early Career Standards (ECS) for newly qualified children and family social workers and the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE). As part of this ambition to ensure a more streamlined approach, we have amended our approach to the KSBs to align with post qualifying frameworks, such as the Early Career Development Programme.
Why are we introducing this guidance?
When we published the KSBs, we explained that they would form part of new guidance on ‘readiness for professional practice’ that would be developed alongside our review of the education and training standards and guidance. The readiness for professional practice guidance explains to course providers how to use the KSBs.
This includes:
- information to support providers to map their course to the KSBs
- setting expectations in relation to monitoring student progression towards meeting the KSBs across the course duration
It is our intention that proposed changes to the education and training standards will bring the KSBs into our regulatory framework. Subject to the outcome of this consultation, we propose that course providers would be required to demonstrate (both of the following):
- how they have mapped their courses to the KSBs
- how they are monitoring student progression towards meeting the KSBs
A separate consultation is currently taking place in relation to the proposed changes to our education and training standards and supporting guidance which can be found in the consultations section on our website. We propose to implement these changes from autumn 2027. We’re consulting now to give course providers adequate notice of changes that may affect their courses. However, an independent review of Social Work England is currently ongoing, and the outcome of this consultation may be shaped by the findings from the review.
How have we developed the guidance?
We have engaged with a range of stakeholders including: course providers, employers, people with lived experience of social work, and students. We have also discussed our approach to developing this guidance with our Education and Training Advisory Forum as well as some of our partners. The feedback was used to inform the proposed guidance.
Summary of key proposals
As set out in the guidance, course providers would be required to demonstrate how they assess student competence across all of the KSBs at the end of their course. We have been clear in the guidance that students must not progress through a final year award board without course providers being assured of their competence.
While an award board is the final point to assess competency, course providers would also be required to demonstrate how they are monitoring student progression throughout the course. This will ensure that the KSBs are embedded throughout the curriculum and placement journey, supporting students to recognise their importance. To ensure our proposals consider the different routes into social work, we have aligned the guidance with the expectations of our education and training standards, which all courses must meet.
We have proposed 4 progressive thresholds when student capability or progress should be measured. These are:
- application
- assessed preparation for direct practice
- end of 200 days in practice settings
- prior to award board
The guidance is aimed at course providers who are delivering approved social work education and training courses, or who are preparing to apply for approval of a new social work qualifying course. The readiness for professional practice guidance document should not be read in isolation. It should be read alongside our education and training standards and guidance, and the knowledge, skills and behaviour statements.
We have structured our guidance to consider the professional behaviour statements in one section and the knowledge and skills statements in another. We considered that it would not be appropriate to separate the knowledge and skills statements. The development of a student’s skills is dependent upon having acquired an appropriate level of knowledge within each area of their course. We have referred to these different areas as ‘practice domains’.
The 2 sections follow the same structure, which includes all of the following:
- an introduction
- examples of how progressive thresholds might be applied
- details of the relevant statements
- development of the behaviours, knowledge, and skills throughout the course
We have also included information about how course providers might assess a student’s progress across the KSBs. The examples of potential assessment methods in the guidance are not intended to be an exhaustive list. Instead, they are meant to illustrate the wide range of options that may be used by course providers to assess competency.
In recognition of the fact that the introduction of the KSBs is a new approach, we have provided some additional guidance for course providers, should they want it. This offers practical examples to support implementation. We have included this as an annex to avoid making the main guidance too lengthy or difficult to navigate.
As we know that course providers already map their provision to the professional standards, we have mapped the KSBs to our professional standards in the annex. Going forward, course providers will be required to map their provision to the KSBs instead. The KSBs are intended to prepare a student to meet the professional standards. This means any course mapped to the professional standards should be well equipped to meet the KSBs. As a result, we are not anticipating that there will need to be extensive changes to courses.
How to respond
The consultation period was for 8 weeks and closed on Thursday 6 August at 5pm. We are no longer accepting responses to this consultation.
We are currently analysing the response to this consultation. We will then publish a consultation response along with the final guidance. Full details of our response and any amendments will be made available on our website.