Response to BEIS

20 October 2020

About us

Social Work England is a specialist body taking a new approach to regulating social workers in their vital roles. We believe in the power of collaboration and share a common goal with those we regulate—to protect the public, enable positive change and ultimately improve people’s lives.

Consultation feedback

Current Regulation of Professions

Please tell us in which nation(s) you are a regulator of a profession:

England

Please state the sector(s) you regulate within

Health and Social Care

Please state the profession(s) you regulate.

Social workers

Please outline the rationale for regulation within your sector.

The over-arching objective of our regulation, as set out in Section 37 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 is the protection of the public. This involves:

• Protecting, promoting and maintaining the health, safety and well-being of the public;
• Promoting and maintaining public confidence in social workers in England; and
• Promoting and maintaining proper professional standards for social workers in England.

Please outline any evidence you have on the consumer protection impacts provided by your regulations.

Social Work England does not exist to protect consumers. Rather, our over-arching objective is the protection of the public. To achieve our objectives, we:

• set professional standards, including those for proficiency, conduct and ethics.
• set standards for, and approve, education and training courses, maintaining a register of around 100,000 social workers in England.
• run a fitness to practise system, ensuring social workers have the skills, knowledge, character and health to practise safely and effectively without restriction.
• ensure and assess continuing professional development (CPD).
• approve post-qualifying courses.

Social Work England was established on 2 December 2019. However, social work has been a statutorily regulated profession since October 2001, first under the General Social Care Council and then under the Health and Care Professions Council.

Since our launch in December 2019 to July 2020, we have removed 3 social workers from the register, suspended 4 social workers and placed conditions on another 3 social workers where their fitness to practise has been found to be impaired.1 This does not include reviews of existing suspensions and conditions of practice. It should be noted that this figure is considerably lower than expected, as Covid-19 has made it more difficult for us to hold substantive hearings.

We have also recently commissioned research from YouGov on how social workers perceive their profession and how it is regulated. In summary 77% of current, student and former social workers valued the role of a specialist regulator in social work. We have also commissioned research on how the public perceives social work, which showed that the majority of the public is positive about the work of social workers and feel assured by the work of a specialist regulatory body.

International Recognition

Please outline your process(es) of recognising someone with an international qualification. In your answer, please include details of how this differs from the process of recognising a domestic applicant, the rationale for this/the reasons why this is the case, and the costs of administering this route.

There are three routes to joining the social work register, depending on the qualification the applicant possesses and the country in which the qualification is gained. Broadly, the routes to register are as follows:

• Applicants who qualified from a UK institution.
• Applicants who are a national of an EU state or have another enforceable EU right, who are able to apply under EU Directive 2005/36 on the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications (MRPQ) and the European Union (Recognition of Professional Qualifications) Regulations 2015.
• Applicants who apply from outside the EEA, and who can demonstrate that their qualifications and experience meet our qualification and standards.

Schedule 1 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 sets out the recognised qualifications that allow entry onto the register.

For more detail, please see our guidance on the process: applicants who qualified in an EEA country or Switzerland and all other overseas applicants. In summary, Social Work England regulates providers of social work qualifications in England, so we can be confident that they meet our standards; we also work closely with our sister regulators Social Care Wales, the Scottish Social Services Council and the Northern Ireland Social Care Council to ensure other UK social care qualifications are assessed on a similar basis.

The MRPQ process provides us with a simplified way to compare social work qualifications from other EU states, enabling us to assess qualifications more quickly. It also allows us to communicate with other regulators across the EU to get the information we need. By contrast, for international applications we need to assess each qualification separately to see how it compares to our standards.

Please outline any additional steps and their resource implications that you face in processing applicants with international qualifications?

For us to be satisfied that applicants with international qualifications meet the requirements for registration, additional steps for these applicants are set out in the Social Workers Regulations 2018 and our Registration Rules 2019. These include:

• Requiring applicants to demonstrate knowledge of English.
• Undertaking tests of competence.
• Using the Internal Market Information (IMI) database to check applications, (IMI is a database and communication system managed by the European Commission, so is only available for EU applications).
• Additional fees are required from international applicants on this basis, as set out in our Fees Rules 2019.

With reference to any of the additional steps outlined above, what would you suggest are the priorities for the UK Government in considering future ways to recognise international qualifications? Please include any details on what an ideal system could look like, as well as how it could operate. Please consider what the priorities would be for the profession you regulate.

In the absence of different requirements for applicants from the EU, we think there should be consistency for all international applications, so that a similar, proportionate process can be applied for any application from any international applicant. This would allow us to require English language competence in a fair and consistent way. We also think it is important to have the ability to require tests of competence where necessary, and to create a list of comparable qualifications based on evidence of equivalence to UK qualifications.

Do you require legislation to give you powers to make changes to your international recognition routes?

Our requirements for registration are based largely on the country where a social worker received their qualification or practised recently. An exception to this is for EU and EEA nationals who currently have provision made for them in the European Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications 2005/36. Pending an agreement between the UK and the EU for our relationship after the transition period, EEA nationals will most likely be treated as international applicants.

Schedule 1, paragraph 1(c) of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 state that in order for an applicant with an international qualification to be considered for registration, they must "have undergone training in the social work profession outside the United Kingdom, and either—

• (i) hold a qualification which the regulator is satisfied attests to a standard comparable to that attested to by an approved qualification, or
• (ii) do not hold such a qualification, but the person has undergone such additional training or experience, in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, as satisfies the regulator, following any test of competence as it may require them to take, that they meet the requisite standard for admission to the register"

The European Qualifications (Health and Social Care Professions) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/593 are intended to remove all references to EU qualifications from our Regulations, which would result in EU and international applications being changed in the same way. To change this (or make any other changes to our Regulations) would require further secondary legislation.

However, the 2019 Regulations do not amend our Rules, which also refer to EU applications. While we do not require legislation to amend our Rules, they do require sign-off by the Secretary of State and a public consultation, as would any amendments to our standards.

What level of dialogue do you maintain with your international counterparts? Please outline the benefits and challenges to cooperation. Please also outline if you are a member of any international networks of regulators, what they are and your experience with them.

We communicate with other EU regulators predominantly using the IMI database. We do not have strong links with other international regulators, although this may be a reflection of us being in our first year of regulation.

What are your priorities for supporting UK professionals on your register to have access to their profession in other countries? Please outline any Government support that would help.

A key priority would be communication with other regulators, so that a registrant’s qualifications and disciplinary history (where appropriate) can be shared smoothly. For EU regulators this has previously been done through IMI, and a priority will now be establishing communication routes with regulators in states where the highest numbers of our registrants seek registration (and from where we receive the most applications).

Do you have any provisions for the recognition of professional qualifications held by refugees residing in the UK? If yes, please detail what these are and why you have implemented these provisions. If no, please detail why not.

No. We consulted on our Registration Rules in 2019 and we had no feedback or suggestion that this was needed.

Developing Professional Standards and Regulation

Please describe the process by which UK professionals gain qualifications to enter the profession, including detail on the types of education and training they must undergo and how long it takes to complete them.

To register as a social worker in England, potential registrants must complete a recognised social work qualification. This is typically a Level 6 or 7 qualification that can be accessed through entry points including: 3-year undergraduate; 2-year postgraduate (masters); 2-year fast-track programme; or 3-year degree apprenticeship.

All social work courses regulated by us are required to meet the Social Work England Education & Training Standards. These are the standards against which we assess and approve social work education and training courses. Providers are currently assessed against the 2019 standards; these were developed under the previous regulatory regime and will be replaced in September 2021 by the Social Work England 2021 Education and Training Standards. They have been developed with education and training providers to ensure they are relevant and mean that students who successfully complete a social work course can meet our professional standards and can apply to be registered with us.

Courses vary in their structure and providers will develop curriculum locally. However, all are required to include a work placement that forms more than half of the course as well as academic learning that cover theory, ethics, and legislation. Applicants to these courses will normally need to demonstrate experience when applying to study (this can include paid, voluntary or placement work, or life experience).

In England, applicants to the register are asked to share their qualification in order to enable us to check against course provider records.

For applicants who gained their qualification in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, they operate under different regulatory regimes. We therefore ask applicants to provide: their qualification certificate; the name and address of the course provider; and the name and address of the awarding body. We then verify the qualification with the relevant regulator and/or course provider.

Please describe the process you offer for professionals who have gained the relevant UK qualifications to be brought onto your register.

Please see our guidance to applicants who qualified in the UK, schedule 1 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 and our Registration Rules 2019.

How often do you review your processes and standards? In your answer, please describe both formal and informal ways this is carried out (e.g. via consultancy, membership surveys) and include detail of any changes you have recently made based to this process.

As a new regulator, our standards and rules have only been in place for a year and have therefore not been through a formal review yet. Any formal reviews would be carried out by Social Work England in line with our statutory responsibilities and would require a formal public consultation. Any amendments would require sign off by the Secretary of State.

We have an internal quality assurance team that review our processes, including following external complaints. We’re also in the process of developing feedback surveys for applicants.

Thinking about key changes that have been made to your qualification processes, what has been the cause for this change?

As the new regulator for social work in England, we have not implemented any changes to qualification processes. Providers are still assessed against the standards of the previous regulatory regime until September 2021, at which point our new education and training standards will be implemented.

Do you feel that the current standards you set, against which applicants are assessed to enter onto the register, are a fair reflection of the level of skill, training, education, and experience required to practise their profession? Please explain your answer.

Yes. The professional standards are the threshold standards for safe and effective practice and are specialist to social work. They were co-produced with professional experts and people with lived experience and consulted on with the sector to ensure they apply to all registered social workers in all roles and settings. We do not assess applicants against our professional standards prior to entering onto the register, but approved education providers must be able to demonstrate that students who complete a course are able to meet our professional standards. On entering the register, a social worker agrees that they will uphold the professional standards. They renew this agreement every time they renew their registration (annually).

Please detail any principles of regulation you follow (e.g. proportionality and transparency) and how you uphold them, and whether they support you in your duties as a regulator.

We adopt a right-touch approach to our regulation, as set out by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), which lists the following six principles of good regulation: proportionate; consistent; targeted; transparent; accountable; and agile. The PSA review our performance annually against the standards of good regulation, which include the requirement for us to demonstrate how we review our processes and standards, learn from feedback and complaints, and learn from independent reports and inquiries. As well as considering how we review our standards internally, the PSA will also carry out their own review of our processes and standards and comment on them through their performance review process.

Please detail any requirements you may place on the professionals you regulate and why they are necessary. If you do not impose any requirements, please justify your reasons for not doing so.

The threshold entry route to the register, as set out in our 2019 education and training standards, is a bachelor’s degree with honours. When the 2021 standards come into effect, the requirement will be defined as, “Social work students who successfully complete approved courses”. Once registered, social workers are required to provide evidence of continuing professional development to renew their registration each year, as this is a requirement under the Social Workers regulations 2018.

Please describe the process by which you determine your application fees. Please set out any principles or guidelines you adhere to when determining fee amounts.

We have yet to review our fees structure, but we anticipate that any fee changes will be made following discussion with our Board and sponsor and would require a public consultation. Any changes to fees would also require changes to our Fees Rules 2019.

Please detail any changes that you are considering for your sector to ensure the profession you regulate stays relevant to current challenges. Does current regulation allow for you to make these changes?

Our regulatory framework covers post-qualifying specialisms, including approved mental health practitioners and best interest assessors (soon to be ‘approved mental capacity professionals’). We are developing new standards for the approval of training for these specialists and plan to create explanatory guidance to support professionals holding these roles. They are interprofessional roles, open to people from 4 regulated professions, and while current legislation requires us to lead on these solutions, we will need to implement limited secondary legislation (regulations) to give effect to what we devise.

Please detail any steps you take to help make sure that your standards and processes are adaptive, support innovation and promote social mobility.

As a specialist professional regulator of social work in England our professional standards set the threshold for safe social work practice. In demonstrating to us that they meet our requirements and our standards, applicants can join the social work register and practice in England. They were co-produced with professional experts and people with lived experience and publicly consulted on to ensure they are adaptive to apply to all registered social workers in all roles and settings.

Continuous Professional Development

Please detail any continuous professional development that is required for professionals to remain on your register. Please include detail on how often this should take place, in what form, as well as the benefits of adhering and consequences of not adhering to these requirements.

Under the Social Work Regulations 2018, social workers are required to provide evidence of continuing professional development to renew their registration and demonstrate continued fitness to practise.

We require social workers to provide evidence of at least 1 piece of CPD to renew their registration on an annual basis. We have not stipulated the type of CPD that social workers should do, nor have we stipulated a minimum number of hours. Following the completion of our first CPD cycle, we will be assessing the experience of our first year as regulator and will consult on future CPD requirements.

Diversity and Inclusion

Do you collect data on the diversity of both your UK and international applications? For example, on gender or ethnic background.

Of the Protected Characteristics listed in the 2010 Equality Act, we currently collect the age and gender of all social workers on our register.

Please outline any steps you take to eliminate unconscious bias from your recognition process.

Information about certain protected characteristics are hidden from the application assessor so that they carry out their assessment based on facts only. All our assessors also undertake unconscious bias training, and all EEA/overseas qualifications are assessed by two registered social workers.

Please outline any steps you take to support job creation in the profession you regulate.

Our purpose is not job creation, it is to regulate the profession and protect the public, as set out in the Act (section 37(1)). Through our specialist remit and research, we will in time be able to provide a unique view of social work in England, that will offer up reliable and insightful intelligence about the sector and ultimately to drive improving standards of professional practice to enable positive change. This may ultimately lead to job creation.

Please outline any steps you take to attract a diverse workforce to the profession you regulate.

As with job creation, this is not part of our role. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic however, we have worked collaboratively with the Department for Education, Department of Health and Social Care and the Local Government Association on the ‘Social Work Together’ portal. This allowed social workers with temporary registration to connect with employment opportunities.

Additional Information

Please detail any other information or evidence that you think we should take into consideration during this Call for Evidence.

None at this time.

I hope BEIS finds this feedback helpful. Please let us know if you would like further information or clarity on any of the information we’ve provided.

Yours sincerely

Colum Conway