Business plan 2025 to 2026
Business plan 2025 to 2026
Published: 30 April 2025
We recommend viewing the PDF version of this document for the best reading experience. Alternatively, the plan is available in plain text below.
Business plan 2025 to 2026
Contents
- Foreword
- Our strategy for 2023 to 2026
- Our guiding principles
- The year ahead
- Prevention and impact
- Regulation and protection
- Delivery and improvement
- Key performance indicators
- Resources
- Plan on a page (accessible version)
Foreword
Our business plan for 2025 to 2026 outlines what we aim to achieve during the year. It doesn’t describe everything we will do but highlights our priority objectives and our key deliverables and measurements. It has been developed based on the learning, experiences and the ongoing collaboration we have had with key stakeholders in social work and regulation. Our business plan is also informed by the government policy objectives and our longer-term objectives contained in our strategy for 2023 to 2026.
This is the final business plan linked to our current strategy, and this year will see us working on a new strategy for 2026 to 2029. We’ll be guided by our legislation and statutory responsibilities, and by our values and guiding principles. These include our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and co-production, our aspiration to continually learn through the effective use of data and insight, and our ambition to deliver the best possible value for money. We will also undergo an independent review during the business year that will offer valuable insights to inform our next strategic period.
Social workers are an essential part of the health and social care workforce for both adults and children. In the year ahead we are planning several engagement events that will include discussions on:
- our education and training standards
- our approach to continuing professional development (CPD)
- our next strategy
- what we understand as ‘seriousness’ in the complaints we receive about social workers
We will also launch our new inspection models for approved mental health professionals (AMHPs) and best interest assessors (BIAs). This will be in addition to our ongoing dialogue with social workers across the country, through our regional engagement team, and key moments including Social Work Week and our “Change the Script” campaign.
During 2024 to 2025, we collaborated on plans for children’s social care reform. We will continue to support the government’s ambitions for social care and social work reform. We welcome opportunities to share our unique experience and perspective. As the whole profession regulator, we’ll continue to champion cross profession working. We stand ready to respond to national reviews, such as the Baroness Casey review of adult social care, drawing the links between reform and professional standards as the foundation of social work practice.
The Professional Standards Authority performance review for 2023 to 2024 concluded that we continue to meet all but one of the 18 standards of good regulation. We acknowledge that timeliness in the fitness to practise process remains a challenge. This business plan outlines the actions we are taking this year to improve case progression in all areas of the fitness to practise process. An uplift in our grant in aid this year provides us with an opportunity to commit more resources to do this. We have also launched a consultation that proposes to increase our fees. If the decision is taken to increase the fee, this could provide additional resources to further support timeliness in the fitness to practise process.
In the year ahead we will undertake a detailed review of case progression in fitness to practise. This will have an emphasis on how we operate at every stage and how we can take every opportunity to generate and monitor efficiencies. This is so we can improve timeliness now and into the future, maintain the quality of decision making, and provide the best value for money. Part of this work will be the development of an in-house advocacy service to work alongside our external legal provider.
Over the next 12 months we will finalise and publish our digital, data and technology strategy. We will explore the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence (AI) both for us as a regulator and for practice in the social work profession. Technology is continually evolving, so we’ll be exploring how technological advancements might offer improvements in how both we and the profession conduct our work.
We will implement and embed a new behaviours framework ensuring that it is supported by leadership training and underpins our approach to:
- our culture
- performance management
- development
- talent
- succession planning
All of our activity can only be delivered through the hard work, commitment, skills and knowledge of our board, our people and our partners. Everyone in the organisation has an important role to play in helping to deliver our mission to protect the public and enable positive change in social work.
Colum Conway
Chief Executive, Social Work England
Our strategy for 2023 to 2026
Our strategy for 2023 to 2026 is based around 3 strategic themes:
- Prevention and impact: building trust and confidence within a safer practice environment.
- Regulation and protection: being transparent, efficient, responsive and fair in how we regulate.
- Delivery and improvement: putting our people at the heart of the positive change we want to drive and being able to unlock efficiencies and continual improvement.
Across these themes, we identified 10 strategic objectives that we aim to achieve over the 3 years covered by our strategy. This business plan sets out the work we will do in the third and final year of our current strategy, to ensure that we achieve those objectives and are in the best possible position for our next strategy.
Our guiding principles
In delivering our strategy, we are guided by our main principles:
- Equality, diversity and inclusion must be integral to and embedded in all we do. This must form a key part of the values and behaviours we bring as individuals and as an organisation.
- We will always listen to, engage with and co-produce alongside those who are directly influenced by our work. Co-production is about encouraging the people we work with and for to participate in and influence our work.
- We are committed to continual learning through the effective use of good quality data and insight, to ensure that we understand the impact we have and inform our future plans.
Our strategy for 2023 to 2026 also outlines our commitment to provide value for money. As this is a significant priority for us, we are including a new guiding principle:
- We will use every opportunity to maintain and improve efficiency and effectiveness in the way we work, to ensure the best use of our funding and provide value for money.
The year ahead
As we move into the final year of our current strategy, our focus is building on the work we have accomplished so far and reflecting on our achievements to shape our strategy for 2026 to 2029.
Our objectives for 2025 to 2026 focus on key and newer areas of work. We have not tried to capture all areas of our work in our objectives for the year. Alongside these objectives, we’ll continue to deliver our statutory regulatory functions and other business as usual activity.
In 2025 to 2026, we expect to:
- renew registration for over 104,000 social workers
- process around 8,000 new applications to join the register
- respond to around 65,000 phone calls and emails
- receive around 1,800 fitness to practise concerns
- conduct over 500 investigations
- make over 3,000 decisions about fitness to practise cases
- review around 500 current sanctions
- approve or reapprove 40 social work education and training courses, including approved mental health professionals (AMHP) and best interest Assessors (BIA) training provision
- engage with around 10,000 people through a range of events across the year
How we'll monitor progress
Using data and insight to understand our progress is core to how we operate, how we improve, and how we are held to account for our activities and the public money we spend. Throughout the year, we’ll monitor progress towards delivering our objectives and key performance indicators. We will report on progress to our board each quarter and publish these progress updates on our website. We will regularly review our plans to make sure they remain achievable and that our resources are used efficiently and effectively in support of our priorities.
Prevention and impact
We believe that it is better, where possible, to seek to prevent harm. This approach to public protection will have an increasing focus on how we regulate and the new work we’ll do. Success will be underpinned by building trust and confidence in the profession and creating a clear understanding of the need for, and responsibilities of, professional regulation. This will be supported by a more powerful and insight driven approach to data and change. We’ll also look at the social work practice environment to identify risk factors and consider how well social work qualifying courses prepare graduates for practice.
Our objectives for 2025 to 2026:
1.1: Build trust and confidence in social work and in regulation by engaging with the profession, stakeholders, people with lived experience and the public.
Communication and engagement are key levers that enable us to carry out our role. We will proactively create high profile moments to ensure that we continue to inform and educate people on the role that social work plays in society. This will help us to better explain our role as the regulator and reassure the public that social workers must adhere to professional standards of safe and effective practice. High profile moments will include phase 2 of our ‘Change the Script’ campaign and Social Work Week 2026, to promote confidence both within and outside of the profession. We will use insights gathered from our 2024 survey of social workers to support our work and continue to inform, educate, and influence the profession on our role as the regulator. Alongside this, we will focus on strategic engagement with stakeholders, both regionally and nationally, to ensure we succeed in our mission and proactively tackle prevalent themes arising in practise.
Key deliverables for 2025 to 2026
National Campaign
In 2024, we launched a national campaign to start a conversation on negative perceptions of social work. Informed by our own research, ‘Change the Script’ called on the entertainment industry to more accurately represent social workers in TV and film. This year we will continue phase 2 of the campaign, to more widely reframe the narrative that surrounds social work as a highly trained, skilled and regulated profession.
When: September 2025
Impact: We will track the perception of social work both within and outside of the profession. We will better understand how well planned and considered activity contributes to increased public understanding of social work.
Consultations
We’ll run a series of public consultations to ensure that we are transparent in our plans, making informed decisions and open to listening to diverse perspectives on our work. This includes consultation on:
- our fees rules (commenced in quarter 4 2024 to 2025)
- registration rules
- fitness to practise guidance
- education and training standards and rules
- our strategy for 2026 to 2029
When: April to October 2025
Impact: Individuals and stakeholders have a voice in our decision-making. By ensuring they can contribute views in an easy, timely, accessible way we encourage a breadth of perspectives and on-going dialogue on our work. By recording comparable data year on year about social workers' perceptions, we will gather valuable insight into the context of professional practice. We will also gain insight into how well our engagement approach is working.
Hosting events across England
We will host a series of events across England to co-create a vision for our next 2026 to 2029 strategy. This includes exploring our approach to education and training standards, the concept of seriousness in fitness to practise and continuing professional development (CPD).
When: Autumn 2025
Impact: Through a range of engagement activities, we will gather evidence to ensure our new 3-year strategy is grounded in the reality of social work and is responsive to emerging themes impacting on practise.
1.2 Embed our research function to enhance and inform our understanding of the profession, and to positively impact public policy through evidence-based advice and insight.
Research is an important aspect of our work. As well as helping to provide a detailed picture of social work, it is a key tool in developing the evidence we need to inform our work as the specialist regulator. In the year ahead, we’ll embed our new research function internally and publish our strategic ambitions for research in the short and long term. This will include drawing on both internal and external expertise from (all of the following):
- academics
- people with lived experience
- our education and training advisory forum
- our national advisory forum
- the broader profession and stakeholders
We will look for opportunities to support and promote social care research and contribute to national conversations through networking and relevant forums. As the regulator, we will share our reflections and understanding with the sector and will draw from our growing research base to support discussions about issues facing the profession.
Key deliverables for 2025 to 2026
Key pieces of research
We will complete and publish 4 key pieces of research to help us better understand (all of the following):
- the national practice education landscape.
- the potential implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for social work practice and the professional standards.
- what we understand by ‘seriousness’ in the concerns we receive about fitness to practise.
When: October 2025
Impact: Our research activity and outputs will contribute to sector wide knowledge, enhancing our evidence-based advice and insight to positively impact on public policy.
More specifically, our research will enable us to:
- shape our proposals for a regulatory framework for practice education.
- determine our regulatory role in supporting the sector on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in social work.
- inform the next phase of our work on seriousness in fitness to practise.
Research strategy
We will develop our research strategy for 2026 to 2029.
When: March 2026
Impact: We will have a clear plan for future research activity, that explains how it will add value to our work and sets out the areas we will research and why, and the timescales for delivery.
1.3 Reflect on the learning from our recent review of continuing professional development (CPD) to advance a more comprehensive and valued approach to our CPD requirements, with staged implementation.
Continuing professional development (CPD) will be a central focus of our work during the year ahead. We want social workers to see the value in the CPD they do as part of their ongoing professional development, beyond the requirements for retaining registration with us. We want to create a model for CPD that encourages a culture of learning and development that is ongoing, sustained and embedded in practice.
We recently conducted a review of CPD, which explored how social workers use CPD and how they demonstrate that they meet our professional standards. We will draw on the findings of this review and will work closely with the sector to consider options and shape our long-term ambitions for CPD. This will include how it can support other areas, such as specialist and advanced practice.
Key deliverables for 2025 to 2026
Continuing personal development (CPD)
We will engage with social work employers to understand their existing arrangements and aspirations in relation to CPD. This will help us to understand how our regulatory requirements could best support social workers to engage in high quality and impactful CPD which evidences that they meet the professional standards and supports practice improvement.
When: December 2025
Impact: All of this work will inform a consultation in 2026 on our approach to CPD which will detail our long-term ambition for CPD.
CPD requirements
We will continue to engage with social workers to learn more about how they’re carrying out and recording CPD, and what they think our CPD requirements should look like in the future.
When: March 2026
Impact: All of this work will inform a consultation in 2026 on our approach to CPD which will detail our long-term ambition for CPD.
1.4 Refine and develop our approach to social work education and training, working in partnership with providers and the social work sector to improve the consistency and quality of courses, and the readiness of graduates for professional practice.
In early 2025, we completed our first cycle of inspections and reapproval decisions for all initial education and training courses in England against our education and training standards. We will use the learning and insights from this first cycle to improve our inspection process more generally, in partnership with the sector, and inform proposed changes to our education and training standards, which we’ll consult on in 2025. We’ll use the feedback from this consultation to make sure our standards are driving improvements in the quality and consistency of social work education. We’ll also draft new readiness for professional practice guidance. This will incorporate and bring our knowledge, skills and behaviour statements into regulation once the proposed changes to our education and training standards have been consulted on and implemented.
Key deliverables for 2025 to 2026
Education landscape report
We will publish our education landscape report, that will draw on our unique perspective as the regulator and reflect on the broader landscape of social work education. It will also share data and insight from our reapproval inspections from 2021 to 2024 and from our annual monitoring for the academic year 2023 to 2024 with external stakeholders and policy makers.
When: August 2025
Impact: We will have published a report that is the first of its kind and shares our insight to contribute to sector wide knowledge. It will allow us to explain and shape our broader vision for education and training.
Education and training standards review
We will conduct a review of our education and training standards, and associated rules, which will be informed by public consultation.
When: September 2025
Impact: We will have worked collaboratively with key stakeholders to ensure that changes made to our standards and rules are reflective of the feedback and experiences of all those who use them.
Inspection model for AMHP and BIA courses
We will develop and implement our inspection model for approved mental health professional (AMHP) and best interests assessor (BIA) courses.
When: March 2026
Impact: We will have a tailored approach to inspecting specialist courses, developed in collaboration with the sector, which is streamlined and draws on our learning from our first cycle of inspections.
Professional practice guidance
We will publish our ‘readiness for professional practice’ guidance.
When: March 2026
Impact: Our guidance will incorporate and bring our knowledge, skills and behaviour statements into regulation, allowing us to have greater oversight of the curriculum for social work education and training. This will provide more assurance around the consistency of course content and confidence that graduates will be able to meet the professional standards.
1.5 Build a more in-depth knowledge of the practice education landscape to inform and support the critical role of practice educators, including exploring potential regulatory levers.
We’ll look at our approach to supporting the role of practice educators in preparing social work graduates for professional practice, including how it links to the role of practice supervisor. We’ll deliver research that builds a clearer picture of the education landscape for practice education and explore what this means for our regulatory processes. This will involve engaging with course providers and employers to gain a better understanding of the supply of practice educators and the support available to them. Working in partnership with the Education and Training Advisory Forum (ETAF) and our Practice Education Development Group, we’ll explore options for regulatory oversight of practice educators. Practice educators play a pivotal role in supporting social work students during their practice placements, helping them to apply their classroom learning in a practical setting. Our work on practice education is a key part of our ambition to raise the standard of social work education across the country.
Key deliverables for 2025 to 2026
Practice education research
We will complete research to help us understand the shape of the education landscape for practice education.
When: June 2025
Impact: Our research activity will contribute to sector wide knowledge.
Engage with the sector
We will engage the sector to gain a better understanding of the supply of, and support for, practice educators. We’ll implement processes that allow registrants to inform us that they are a practice educator.
When: September 2025
Impact: All of this work will build a clearer picture of the practice education in England, which will help us to shape our proposals for a regulatory framework for practice education.
Regulation and protection
Protecting the public starts with our professional standards, which apply to every social worker. Our standards embed the principles for professionalism to support safe and effective practice, and the register gives confidence to the public that social workers meet those standards. Our fitness to practise work ensures that appropriate action is taken when a social worker’s ability to meet the standards is called into question.
We’ll ensure that all our regulatory activity continues to strike the right balance between protection and proportionality. We will ensure that our work is fair, transparent, efficient and in the public interest. We’ll engage with employers and others to ensure that where appropriate, local resolution of concerns is used effectively. We will continue to promote the benefits of effective regulation and encourage social workers to engage with us, our work and their regulatory responsibilities. This includes our CPD requirements, to demonstrate to the public that social workers meet the standards.
Our objectives for 2025 to 2026:
2.1 Take action to improve timeliness in our triage, investigations and case examiner functions whilst maintaining decision making quality and fairness.
We began work in 2024 to implement learning from our first few years of regulation and improve timeliness in our triage, investigations and case examination functions. We have experienced some challenges in this work which we will continue to address during the year ahead. Our focus remains on ensuring that:
- our fitness to practise work is carried out in a timely way
- decisions are being taken after high-quality investigations
- the public interest is at the forefront of our approach
To achieve this objective, we’ll introduce additional resource to improve performance at the triage stage of the fitness to practise process. We’ll also review our current processes and consider how we can improve early engagement with social workers and others who are involved in the fitness to practise process. Alongside our work to improve timeliness, we will continue to analyse and understand the causes of disparities within fitness to practise outcomes.
Key deliverables 2025 to 2026
Triage stage of fitness to practice process
We will introduce additional resource at the triage stage of the fitness to practise process.
When: June 2025
Impact: We will improve timeliness in our triage service to reach our KPI in this area. We will also significantly address the current volume of cases within our triage service by the end of the 2025 to 2026 period.
Review of triage and investigation processes
We will complete a review of current processes within the triage and investigations services, to identify where there may be opportunities to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
When: March 2026
Impact: The review will lead to streamlined and more consistent ways of working across triage and investigations stages of fitness to practise.
Quality assurance framework for case examiners
We will review and develop the quality assurance framework for case examiners, which will support case examiner decision making.
When: March 2026
Impact: This work will ensure that we are using our decision makers effectively, which will drive improvements in quality and timeliness.
2.2 Use the additional funding to take action to address the hearings backlog.
Last year, we set out the case for additional funding to tackle the backlog of fitness to practise cases awaiting a hearing. This was agreed, and we’ll use the additional funding to start to address the backlog in the year ahead.
Key deliverables 2025 to 2026
Hearing cases
We will increase our capacity to progress cases to a hearing from 2025 to 2026 and seek to maintain this additional capacity into 2026 to 2027 and beyond.
When: March 2026
Impact: By March 2026, we expect that the number of cases awaiting a hearing will be in line with our projections as reported to our board in March 2025.
2.3 Identify and realise further efficiency and effectiveness opportunities in our hearings and case review functions.
We have focused on improving efficiency and effectiveness in fitness to practise over several years and can demonstrate significant efficiencies already arising from changes we made to our rules and regulations in 2022. This year we’ll progress work to realise further improvements in efficiency and effectiveness across our hearings and case review functions.
In 2024 we began work to look at options for bringing aspects of our fitness to practise advocacy in-house. This year we will start to build capacity to begin taking on some of this work ourselves. We’ll explore alternative options for disposing of some cases referred for a hearing. We’ll consider the outcome of our pilot of 2 person panels for final hearings, and take actions based on the learning from the pilot.
Achieving further efficiency and effectiveness in our hearings and case review functions will help to reduce the time and cost it takes to conclude fitness to practise cases.
Key deliverables 2025 to 2026
Final hearings pilot evaluation
We will evaluate the pilot we completed in 2024 to 2025 of 2 person panels for final hearings, and take actions based on the learning.
When: May 2025
Impact: We will have consolidated learning and insights from the pilot we completed in 2024 to 2025 to inform decisions about future implementation. Pending a decision on 2 person panels, we aim to introduce it from quarter 3.
In-house legal advocacy team
We will recruit and train an in-house legal advocacy team to support our fitness to practise case work and establish processes and systems to support the work of the new team.
When: March 2026
Impact: We aim to achieve net cost savings of circa £500,000 per annum from 2026 to 2027 onwards, and to increase the flexibility and resilience within our legal services.
Consensual panel disposal
We will explore the potential to manage final hearings in a different way where the evidence is not disputed, also known as consensual panel disposal. We’ll consult on the approach and update our guidance, processes, and training for employees and partners as required.
When: March 2026
Impact: Consensual panel disposal, if agreed, could enable a reduction in hearing length, bringing benefits for all parties and reducing associated costs in these cases. We will consult on this within 2025 and 2026 and look to implement from quarter 1 2026 to 2027.
Delivery and improvement
To deliver our ambitions we will further evolve how we work. We’re focused on continuous improvement of the approaches and systems that underpin our work, and on fostering a culture of transparency, accountability and driving value for money in what we do. Key to this is having (all of the following):
- effective governance and oversight
- efficient and effective processes
- data and insight about our performance to allow good decisions
- a robust framework of quality assurance that informs our learning
- co-produced digital services that meet the needs of our stakeholders
Our people are at the heart of change, and our people strategy underpins our role as a diverse and inclusive employer.
Securing the resources we need to deliver our regulatory responsibilities in an efficient and timely manner continues to be paramount. We need to be able to plan for the longer term with clarity and confidence, to unlock efficiencies and continuous improvement to deliver value for money. This year we’ll conclude the consultation on our fees that began in early 2025 and we will continue to work with the Department for Education to ensure we are appropriately resourced for the work we do.
Our objectives for 2025 to 2026:
3.1 Develop and publish a new strategy for 2026 to 2029, supported by an aligned and strengthened approach to annual business planning and performance management.
This year, we will develop a new strategy for 2026 to 2029. To support its development, we’ll run a public consultation to ensure that we are transparent and considerate of diverse perspectives. Our new strategy will be guided by our legislation and statutory responsibilities, and by our values and guiding principles. We will also undergo an independent review during the business year that will offer valuable insights to inform our next strategic period.
We’ll complete a review of our approach to annual business planning which will identify areas for enhancement. As part of this review we will also strengthen the way in which we report on and manage our performance.
Key deliverables for 2025 to 2026
Review of annual business planning cycle
We will complete a review of current processes that support our annual business planning cycle, to identify opportunities to increase efficiency, effectiveness and impact.
When: September 2025
Impact: We will have agreed a new approach to business planning that considers our organisational context and the needs of diverse stakeholders. The planning process will be more streamlined and efficient.
Strategy for 2026 to 2029
Building on strong foundations, we will develop and publish a new strategy for 2026 to 2029 that is underpinned by collaboration and inclusivity, efficiency and value for money, and sets out a clear vision and mission for our organisation.
When: March 2026
Impact: We will have a clear plan outlining our future strategic priorities, which will set out how we intend to deliver the statutory objectives we are responsible for. This will be supported by our business plan and other strategic plans. Our collaborative and inclusive approach will ensure our strategy is accessible and resonates with our audiences.
Priorities and business planning process
Underpinning our new priorities and business planning process will set a clear performance management framework.
When: March 2026
Impact: We will have clear objectives and measures of performance that enable all our stakeholders to understand what we will do, when we will do it, and track and evaluate our progress. We will also have a suite of reporting mechanisms informed by feedback from stakeholders that it meets their needs.
3.2 Finalise and start to implement our new digital, data and technology strategy.
Last year, we delivered further accessibility improvements to our digital channels and services. We continued to enhance our case management system to support efficient ways of working and began to explore improvements to our data architecture.
To ensure we remain on track to deliver excellent digital services for our registrants and the public, we also undertook a review of our digital, data and technology arrangements. We rely on our digital services to deliver our functions, engage with social workers, and support the public to raise a concern.
We’ll finalise and begin to implement our digital, data and technology strategy in the year ahead, based on our learning from the review.
Key deliverables 2025 to 2026
Digital, data and technology strategy
We’ll finalise and publish our digital, data and technology strategy.
When: October 2025
Impact: Our digital, data and technology strategy will enable us to harness digital tools, data insights and modern technology better to become a user-focused, data-driven and innovative regulator.
Delivering our digital, data and technology strategy
We’ll develop an implementation ‘roadmap’ to deliver our digital, data and technology strategy. This will set out the actions we’ll take in 2025 to 2026 and what more we’ll do in 2026 to 2027 and 2028 to 2029 to achieve our strategy objectives. We’ll deliver our year one actions by March 2026 in accordance with the roadmap.
When: March 2026
Impact: By the end of 2025 to 2026, we’ll have a clear plan in place to deliver the strategy. We will have:
- tightened security within our case management system
- improved data governance
- developed new strategies to attract, retain and develop the talent we need in specialist roles.
Plan for emerging technologies
We will develop and approve an initial plan for the adoption of emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI).
When: March 2026
Impact: We’ll have scoped the potential benefits of emerging technologies and have a clear plan for how we will begin to use these in a safe and appropriate way to unlock improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and value for money.
3.3 Adopt and embed our new behaviours framework.
In 2024 to 2025, we continued to implement our people strategy for 2023 to 2026. In particular, we carried out a review of our culture and our behaviours framework. As a result, we now have a clear vision statement of our ideal culture. We will launch our new behaviours framework in spring 2025, alongside a package of leadership development to help our people adopt and embed these ways of working.
Key deliverables 2025 to 2026:
Behaviours framework
We will launch our new behaviours framework and embed this through ongoing work to deliver our people strategy. This will involve:
- organisation-wide communication
- support and development for all our people
- updates to our people policies
- a clear focus on culture and behaviours within objective-setting and performance review
When: May 2025
Impact: Embedding our new behaviours framework will help to align individual actions with the organisation’s values and goals. This will enable us to:
- deliver more efficiently
- improve the experience of registrants and members of the public who interact with us
- ensure that work remains a positive experience for all our people
- ensure that our guiding principles (equality, diversity and inclusion, co-production, effective use of data and insight and value for money) are embedded in all that we do.
Tracking our progress
We will develop clear measures that will enable us to track our progress and evidence the impact this work is having across the organisation.
When: September 2025
Impact: We will see clear evidence that the behaviours framework is understood by our people and is being used to inform the way we plan and carry out our work. There will be improved feedback about culture and behaviour in our 2025 to 2026 and 2026 to 2027 staff engagement surveys, and improvement in other measures of people and business performance.
Key performance indicators
Education quality assurance
- Time taken from end of course inspection to regulator decision. Target: less than or equal to 60 working days (median)
Registration
- Time taken to approve UK registration applications. Target: less than or equal to 10 working days (median)
- Time taken to approve restoration applications. Target: less than or equal to 20 working days (median)
- Time taken to answer emails. Target: less than or equal to 5 working days (median)
- Time taken to answer phone calls. Target: less than or equal to 8 minutes (median)
Fitness to practise
- Time taken to complete triage. Target: less than or equal to 26 weeks by March 2026 (median)
- Time taken to complete investigation. Target: less than or equal to 54 weeks by March 2026 (median)
- Time taken to complete case examination. Target: less than or equal to 12 weeks (median)
- Time taken from receipt of concern to final outcome at case examination. Target: less than or equal to 92 weeks by March 2026
- Time taken from receipt of referral to final outcome at hearing. Target: monitor (median weeks)
- Time taken to approve interim orders. Target: less than or equal to 20 working days (median)
Organisational
- Time taken to complete freedom of information requests. Target: at least 90% within statutory deadline
- Time taken to complete subject access requests. Target: at least 90% within statutory deadline
- Corporate complaints response time. Target: at least 80% within 20 days
- Retention rate. Target: at least 80%
- Days lost to sickness absence in last 12 months. Target: Lower than public sector average (per person)
- Forecast year-end variance to budget. Target: +/- 1.5%
- System availability excluding planned outages. Target: at least 99%
Resources
The total revenue expenditure for 2025 to 2026 is budgeted at £26.7 million, this is an increase of £5.2 million compared to 2024 to 2025.
Our budget for fee income is £10.1 million, this is comparable to the 2024 to 2025 budget. We have also launched a consultation that proposes to increase our fees. Our current fee income budget does not include any proposed increases to our fees. If the decision is taken to increase fees in line with the proposals in the consultation, this could provide an additional £1.1 million to further support timeliness in the fitness to practise process.
Our capital expenditure allocation is £2.8 million, an increase of £700,000 compared to 2024 to 2025. The majority of this capital expenditure will support further development of our case management system to improve operational efficiency.
Our overall revenue budget comprises of £14.2 million of salary costs and £12.5 million of non-pay costs. We have budgeted £2.3 million for depreciation and amortisation charges.
Plan on a page (accessible version)
Our values
- Fearless
- Independent
- Transparent
- Ambitious
- Collaborative
- Integrity
Our guiding principles
- Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Co-production
- Data and insight
- Value for money
Our goals
Prevention and impact: we'll work to prevent harm
- build trust and confidence in social work and in regulation by engaging with the profession, stakeholders, people with lived experience and the public.
- embed our research function to enhance and inform our understanding of the profession, and to positively impact public policy through evidence-based advice and insight.
- reflect on the learning from our recent review of continuing professional development (CPD) to advance a more comprehensive and valued approach to CPD requirements, with staged implementation.
- refine and develop our approach to social work education and training, working in partnership with providers and the social work section to improve the consistency and quality of courses, and the readiness of graduates for professional practice.
- build a more in-depth knowledge of the practice education landscape to inform and support the critical role of practice educators, including exploring potential regulatory levers.
Regulation and protection: we'll balance protection and proportionality
- take action to improve timeliness in our triage, investigations and case examiner functions whilst maintaining decision making quality.
- use the additional funding to take action to address the hearings backlog.
- identify and release further efficiency and effectiveness opportunities in our hearings and case review functions.
Delivery and improvement: we'll keep evolving the ways we work
- develop and publish a new strategy for 2026 to 2029, supported by an aligned and strengthened approach to annual business planning and performance management.
- finalise and start to implement our new digital, data and technology strategy.
- adopt and embed our new behaviours framework.