Our approach to social work education and training
Our approach to social work education and training
Introduction
We were established as the specialist regulator for social work in England to protect the public, promote confidence in social workers and help improve the health, safety and wellbeing of the public. This is set out in the legislation that underpins all that we do, and is described in our corporate strategy.
Part of our role is to assure the public’s confidence that all social workers receive comprehensive initial education and training in a supportive and inclusive learning environment. It is our responsibility to ensure social workers, regardless of the variety of settings they ultimately work in, consistently qualify equipped with the knowledge, values, skills and behaviours to meet the professional standards and register to use the protected title of social worker, confident and prepared to start their career.
Our existing regulatory activity is a strong baseline for this. We have set new education and training standards for course providers and have started to inspect and reapprove all courses of initial social work education and training in England against them. This work offers a valuable insight into the national picture of social work education and training and its importance to the overall safety and effectiveness of the social work profession.
We see clear strengths. Education providers are responsive and willing to engage with us as the regulator and, through our quality assurance activity, we are finding that courses are able to meet our standards. We also see diverse routes into social work and the positive impact of teaching partnerships in enhancing communication, collaboration and innovation between education providers and employers. Importantly, we recognise the role of the academic sector in the social work research community and in shaping evidence-based practice.
However, persistent challenges continue to pose hurdles to achieving consistent experiences for students and readying newly qualified social workers for practice. Some, like access to placements and support in the newly qualified years, are long-standing and were identified in key reviews by Professor Eileen Munro, Sir Martin Narey and Professor David Croisdale-Appleby. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has also aggravated many of these long-standing challenges.
We hope setting out our approach to initial social work education and training provides clarity on our work to the public and those we engage with. This activity will span the breadth of our next 3-year corporate cycle (2023 to 2026) and beyond. We look forward to consulting with people with experience of, and interest in, social work education as we make positive improvements on behalf of the public.
The crowded education and training landscape
We understand that the assurance and audit landscape of social work education and training is crowded. Providers are often required to satisfy different administrative processes from multiple organisations that can be time-consuming and duplicative. Some serve important systems of regulatory assurance, such as our own quality assurance activity. However, others pre-date our inception and were developed as a means of creating assurance and consistency in the absence of a specialist regulator.
In pursuing necessary changes and improvements to enhance public protection, we hope to contribute to a streamlined landscape of increased clarity for providers, students, employers and the public. In our initial engagement with the sector, this message has resonated positively, alongside the view that simplicity would be deeply welcomed and we, as the regulator, are well-placed and trusted to achieve this.
However, we do not own all of the frameworks and guidance that exist in the education and training landscape, and to safely achieve a streamlined environment, we may need to find effective integration with existing frameworks. Currently, education and training providers also use several non-regulatory frameworks to guide the design and delivery of courses. These include the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) and the Post-Qualifying Standards (PQS). Our work too points to these frameworks, such is their adoption in the sector.
Non-regulatory frameworks have provided a valuable frame of reference in the years without specialist regulation and their content describes the role and responsibilities of social work well. However, they pre-date the professional standards and given the reliance on them to shape social work courses, we note that they are not held and administered by the regulator charged with public protection.
As a first step in our approach to education and training, we feel it is important to bring the assurance of social work education closer to regulation and public protection. We want ‘readiness for professional practice’ guidance to help course providers as they support students to meet our professional standards, which they will be expected to meet as registered social workers. This guidance will also provide students with a clear framework of the skills that they can expect to develop during their time in training.
Beyond this, when we consider a streamlined and effective landscape in initial social work education and training, it is important we ensure that systems of guidance and oversight are underpinned by our primary legislative aim of public protection. As we continue our journey, we want to hear from the sector on what simplicity looks like and the role we can play in securing that through our work.
Areas of focus
1. Equality, diversity and inclusion
The principles of equality, diversity and inclusion are core to social work values, the professional and education and training standards, and the codes of ethics [notes 1 and 2] that guide professionals in their practice.
To equip students to support people and communities, many of whom face intersecting discriminations and oppressions, social work education needs to reflect the contemporary and evolving nature of social work practice and learning from global events. This is supported by our own engagement, particularly with students, which suggests they are keen to engage more on topics relating to equality, diversity and inclusion, particularly anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice.
Our existing education and training standards and quality assurance work are a helpful baseline for understanding what students are learning and how ready they feel for placements and practice. Crucially, courses should be designed and delivered alongside people with lived experience of social work. Course content should include equality, diversity and inclusion, anti-racism and anti-oppression as a consistent theme of social education and training.
Social work courses, by their nature, should also lead the way in modelling inclusion in their design and management. This includes looking at admissions processes and reviewing who is successful and unsuccessful in applying to train as a social worker. It also includes support for students, assessing differences in student outcomes, and developing plans to address barriers to achievement with and for students with protected characteristics.
We’ll focus on making positive improvements to equality, diversity and inclusion in social work education and training, in consultation with the public, profession, educators and people with lived experience of social work. This will be a key feature of the work set out in this document and our next corporate strategy.
[Note 1] Code of Ethics (basw.co.uk, external link)
[Note 2] Code of Ethics (ifsw.org, external link)
2. Readiness for practice
The transition from training and education into practice is a critical step in a social worker’s career. We want to ensure that newly qualified social workers are consistently graduating from their qualifying courses able to meet the professional standards and ready to practise safely and effectively.
This is an area of immediate focus. Readiness for practice featured as a theme through the Narey and Croisdale-Appleby reports that were published before our launch as the professional regulator. They were also reflected in the research we commissioned into the education and training social workers received over 2020 to 2021, as professionals reflected on an increase in online working formats and how able students were to develop the skills important for professional practice.
We want to work with the sector in clarifying, regardless of the qualifying route into social work, what it is that social workers need to know and understand as they prepare to register as a social worker. We have undertaken early engagement with those interested in initial social work education and training on ‘readiness for professional practice’ guidance, which outlines the knowledge, values, skills and behaviours that graduates should be able to demonstrate upon completing their qualifying social work course.
Similar models exist elsewhere, both in social work and other regulated professions. All students qualifying in Scotland, for example, are assessed against the Standards in Social Work Education. Course providers embed the standards throughout courses and students demonstrate their knowledge and skills through academic and practice learning. This provides a consistent expectation of social workers graduating from all qualifying courses and forms part of the Scottish Social Services Council’s assurance to the public of the fitness to practise of newly qualified social workers in Scotland.
The ‘readiness for professional practice’ guidance will sit alongside our education and training standards, helping education providers to design and develop course content that equips students to meet the professional standards. It will ultimately form part of our quality assurance of initial courses of social work education and training, once the current reapproval cycle comes to an end and every provider will have been inspected.
We understand that this will bring changes to courses and it’s important we balance the disruption that is brought about by change with the improvements we want to achieve on behalf of the public. As such, alongside this consultation, we will be establishing an education associate role and an advisory panel to support us in setting out how course providers should implement the ‘readiness for professional practice’ guidance.
You can respond to the readiness for professional practice consultation until Wednesday 21 September 2022.
3. Practice educators
All social work students in England are required to spend 200 days (including up to 30 skills days) gaining different experiences and learning in practice settings. This is set out in our 2021 education and training standards. Fundamental to practice placements is the role of the practice educator who teaches, supervises and assesses students on their placements.
Practice educators play a crucial role of public protection by overseeing the safety of a student’s practice on placement, as well as assessing a student’s competence and suitability to progress through their initial training. However, we have no explicit relationship with practice educators beyond their social work registration, nor with the organisations providing practice educator training. At present, practice educators work to the practice educator professional standards (PEPS), held by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW).
As the regulator charged with upholding public protection, it is important we develop a closer relationship with practice educators, assuring their training, supporting their practice, and ensuring the ongoing suitability and competence of social workers who take on this role. The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care also recently recommended that we take on a greater role in overseeing practice educators and their work.
Our research has also shown practice educators desire a relationship with us beyond their status as a social worker, and would welcome greater recognition of their role in preparing future professionals for practice. We commit to commissioning further research this year to better understand the role of the practice educator and the views of the professionals undertaking this important role.
We will formally consult on any proposals we develop in relation to practice educators, which may also include changes to legislation.
4. Standards and guidance
Supporting our work towards achieving our ambition in relation to social work education and training, we will return to our education and training standards and supporting guidance, including guidance on assessing students and practice placements.
We developed the current education and training standards in 2018 ahead of our launch as the regulator and they were launched for course providers in September 2021, after an extended lead-in period as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. By September 2024, we aim to have inspected all initial courses of social work education and training against the standards.
Completing this inspection and reapproval exercise provides an opportunity to consider how the standards have been adopted and implemented by the sector, and crucially, where we need to make revisions and improvements to the standards. We are aware of the pressures on providers to secure and sustain sufficient high-quality placements for students. Understanding how our guidance is being interpreted and implemented may provide an opportunity to better support providers as they navigate an environment of high demand.
Importantly, reviewing our standards and guidance will allow us to take account of important demographic changes, social developments, and changes in social work at the UK and international level and how they have a fundamental impact on practice. It will also support our aim to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion is a core feature of our work in initial education and training.
On review of the education and training standards we will introduce our ‘readiness for professional practice’ guidance on the knowledge, skills and behaviours that we will expect students to demonstrate in order to register with us. Any changes to our standards and supporting guidance will involve a public consultation.
5. Educators and practice experience
Our standards require a course leader to be a social worker and educators to maintain their knowledge and understanding of professional practice. The standards also require strong social worker involvement in delivering programmes. It is our role to ensure social work students are taught by experts who have first-hand knowledge of the contexts in which students will train on placement and then practise as they begin their career.
In 2019, as part of a new annual renewal process, we introduced online recording of one piece of continuing professional development (CPD). In 2021 that was extended to two pieces, with at least one including a peer reflection element. These requirements apply to all registered social workers, including academics and course leaders. However, the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care recommended that social work leaders and academics should be required to undertake 100 hours in direct practice to maintain their registration and to “keep up with the realities of frontline practice”. We are considering this recommendation.
We will, in the course of our work as the regulator, consider the effectiveness of our current requirements for registration and consult with the public and professionals where we feel there are changes needed to protect the public and uphold confidence in social work. As part of this, we will consider the proportionality of our expectations and seek to understand where the benefits of any increase to requirements could be outweighed by the impact on the profession, or the people who depend on social work support.
We will consider the findings from our quality assurance and where we consider changes, consult closely with our partners and those with an interest in social work.
6. Student registration
Ensuring students can learn in safe and supported environments is a critical part of our role as a regulator. Some regulators choose to register students in order to manage this risk closely. This does bring, however, a number of implications for our work and for students and educators, not least the complexity of introducing fitness to practise for students and the financial cost of registration.
The regulators of social work in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland currently register social work students. We were not established with the power or duty to register social work students in England and any move to do so would be a significant undertaking requiring legislative change. We understand there to be some support for registration of student social workers in England. This is particularly from course providers who see benefits in the responsibility for fitness to practise decision-making sitting with the professional regulator, and from those who think this will encourage a positive professional identify earlier.
From our engagement and the research we commissioned into social work education, students have expressed interest in further understanding the benefits of student registration. Our research did also identify however, a misconception among some students that registration would provide protection in a way that is similar to that of a trade union and most participants disliked the idea of the financial burden of student registration falling to the students themselves.
The Department of Health and Social Care also recently stated in its consultation on the reform of professional healthcare regulation that it is proposing to remove any powers or duties for regulators to hold a student register and that “educational institutions are better placed to address any concerns in relation to undergraduate students rather than the regulators”.
We are not, however, a regulator of healthcare professionals and are not included in these reforms. While we are mindful that professional healthcare regulation in England may be moving away from student registration, we are prepared to consider whether registration of social work students would be a proportionate measure to uphold public protection. This will include a careful consideration of financial viability, and the potential burden on students.
Any decision to proceed with student registration would require full public consultation and legislative change.
7. Newly qualified social workers
The first years of practice as a newly qualified social worker represent the initial steps into a purpose-driven career. They are also the years where a social worker is qualified and registered to practise safely, but has the least amount of practice experience to draw from. Social workers in these early years, like in many other professions, require extra support and guidance as they build experience and confidence.
Most newly qualified social workers and employers manage the challenges the first year of practice presents by taking part in the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE). This is a national scheme for children and families social workers funded by the Department for Education, and for adult social workers funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, both currently administered by Skills for Care. It is not a mandatory programme and there are variances in its uptake and quality, as well as disproportionately high failure rates among social workers from black and minority ethnic backgrounds [note 3].
As these initial years require additional support and supervision, they carry potential risks to the public. The early experiences of newly qualified social workers are also fundamental to their decision to stay in frontline practice [note 4]. We see an important public protection interest in these early professional years. The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care also made recommendations in response to the support needed for newly qualified social workers, recommending a five-year Early Career Framework that also supports progress into specialist roles.
Given the importance of both public protection and professional confidence in the transition from education to employment, we are keen to work alongside government and the sector as work is taken forward to consider the most proportionate and effective approach to provide regulatory assurance to the process so we can collectively support newly qualified social workers and ensure they practise safely in a supported environment.
[Note 3] ASYE child and family annual report 2020-21 (skillsforcare.org.uk, external link)
[Note 4] The social work profession (socialworkengland.org.uk)
Next steps
The areas set out in this document form the areas of focus for our approach to initial social work education and training. We understand that we will need to pursue changes in a measured, thoughtful way, and in close consultation with people with experience of and interest in social work. We are currently consulting on the first area of interest, our readiness for practice guidance.
You can respond to the readiness for professional practice consultation until Wednesday 21 September 2022.
We will also, starting in our 2023 to 2026 corporate strategy, look at the social work career post-qualifying to understand better where we may be able to work in partnership to demonstrate clear leadership of the profession and lend our focus as a regulator to areas that require assurance or response to uphold public protection. We will make sure that any proposals are complementary to our work in initial education and training. We will say more about this in our second corporate strategy which we will consult on this year and publish in early 2023.